Lost Amazon Rainforest Cities from 2500 Years Ago Rediscovered
In the Amazon rainforest of South America, archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a pre-Hispanic site, the largest and oldest urban agglomeration to date, a discovery that brings to light a 2,500-year-old agricultural civilization that was lost.
Media reports indicate that the site, which covers more than 1,000 square kilometers in the Upano Valley in the foothills of the Andes Mountains in eastern Ecuador, had long been hidden by the jungle until Stephen Rostain, an archaeologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), discovered hundreds of mounds 25 years ago and began his in-depth study.
It wasn't until 2015 that Rostam led a team of researchers to map the area using Lidar technology, which allows scientists to peer under the canopy and see the entire area in its original state, as if all the trees had been cut down, and combined with archaeological excavations, it was discovered that there were 20 settlements in the area, including five large cities, all connected by roads. The discovery, Rothstein said, was a good one. According to Rothstein, the discovery is akin to the legendary "Golden State" (El Dorado). The urban development of the ruins, such as earthen dwellings, ceremonial buildings, and agricultural drainage facilities, is unprecedented in the Amazon region, and not just one village, but an entire area, has been made suitable for human habitation.
Rostam's team eventually found more than 6,000 mounds of earth, rectangular earthen platforms that served as the base of "Ubano" houses, and household items that would have been found in a home, such as fireplaces, large clay pots used to make beer out of corn, millstones, seeds, and tools, etc. Rostam says that there are signs of not only hunter-gatherers, but also a sophisticated urban population in the Amazon region. He claims that "a certain Western arrogance" has long held that pre-European colonial Amazonian populations were incapable of building such complex societies, but that it is time to rethink the old ways of thinking about Amazonian populations.
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