/archeologists-uncover-massive-lost-ancient-city/

A recent discovery by a team led by Stéphen Rostain is reshaping how researchers think about the pre-Columbian Amazon.

The scientists from the French National Center for Scientific Research were able to use a type of laser-sensor technology called Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) to map a number of earthen mounds they had found in the Upano River Valley in Ecuador in 2015.

This allowed them to create a 3D model of the structures that would otherwise be invisible to the naked eye due to the jungle’s thick vegetation, not to mention its inaccessibility.

The technology revealed something previously unthinkable: a massive civilization consisting of more than 6,000 raised earthen platforms covering an area of 115 square miles (300 square kilometers).

Over 6 feet (2 meters) off the ground, each platform is over 2,000 square feet (200 square meters) and represents the foundation of a building. The scientists believe most were houses, but some were likely monuments or religious centers, given their large areas of up to 60,000 square feet (5,600 square meters).

More shockingly, the mounds are surrounded by a network of canals and roads. The longest road was at least 15 miles long (25 kilometers) and connected multiple settlements. The canals likely allowed for the cultivation of several crops, including corn, beans, manioc, and sweet potatoes, as suggested by pottery uncovered in the area.

Plus, the civilization dates to before 500 A.D. This long predates the Aztec and Inca civilizations and is contemporaneous with the Maya.

the Amazon was thought to have been void of complex civilization because it lacked the stone resources assumed to be required to build such elaborate cities.

However, the ruins of the Upano Valley prove that the people of the Amazon could have built cities and infrastructure using wood, opening up an entirely new channel of archaeological investigation.

The complexity and scale are comparable with the Maya at this time.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2411924-ancient-cities-discovered-in-the-amazon-are-the-largest-yet-found/

mollwollfumble said:

/archeologists-uncover-massive-lost-ancient-city/

A recent discovery by a team led by Stéphen Rostain is reshaping how researchers think about the pre-Columbian Amazon.

The scientists from the French National Center for Scientific Research were able to use a type of laser-sensor technology called Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) to map a number of earthen mounds they had found in the Upano River Valley in Ecuador in 2015.

This allowed them to create a 3D model of the structures that would otherwise be invisible to the naked eye due to the jungle’s thick vegetation, not to mention its inaccessibility.

The technology revealed something previously unthinkable: a massive civilization consisting of more than 6,000 raised earthen platforms covering an area of 115 square miles (300 square kilometers).

Over 6 feet (2 meters) off the ground, each platform is over 2,000 square feet (200 square meters) and represents the foundation of a building. The scientists believe most were houses, but some were likely monuments or religious centers, given their large areas of up to 60,000 square feet (5,600 square meters).

More shockingly, the mounds are surrounded by a network of canals and roads. The longest road was at least 15 miles long (25 kilometers) and connected multiple settlements. The canals likely allowed for the cultivation of several crops, including corn, beans, manioc, and sweet potatoes, as suggested by pottery uncovered in the area.

Plus, the civilization dates to before 500 A.D. This long predates the Aztec and Inca civilizations and is contemporaneous with the Maya.

the Amazon was thought to have been void of complex civilization because it lacked the stone resources assumed to be required to build such elaborate cities.

However, the ruins of the Upano Valley prove that the people of the Amazon could have built cities and infrastructure using wood, opening up an entirely new channel of archaeological investigation.

The complexity and scale are comparable with the Maya at this time.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2411924-ancient-cities-discovered-in-the-amazon-are-the-largest-yet-found/

The structures shown in the following lidar image are not stone walls, but are instead raised earth platforms.

A mysterious civilisation built a network of cities and roads in the Amazon between 3000 and 1500 years ago, and then disappeared.

Let’s compare this with the Maya. The Maya were confined to central America, to the red region on the following map.

The first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic, a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and the city of Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is largely defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop many city-states linked by a complex trade network.

In the 9th century, there was a widespread political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in civil wars, the abandonment of cities, and a northward shift of population.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi6317