Embarking on a journey through the lush green canopy of the Bolivian Amazon, mapping technology has unveiled a captivating secret hidden beneath the trees—a sprawling urban landscape that hints at the existence of sophisticated ancient cultures. The Amazon, often regarded as one of the planet’s last great wildernesses, has been shrouded in legends of lost cities for centuries. From the elusive El Dorado, a mythical city of gold that led Spanish explorers off the map, to the 20th-century quest for the Lost City of Z by British explorer Percy Fawcett, the tales of hidden civilizations have fueled imaginations for generations.
Now, the narrative takes an exciting turn as scientists confirm the existence of ancient cities in the heart of the Amazon. Navigating through the challenge of finding urban ruins in the dense, remote forests, researchers have harnessed a groundbreaking technology to change the game. Hovering 650 feet above in a helicopter, scientists employed light-based remote sensing technology, known as lidar, to digitally strip away the forest canopy and reveal the remnants of a vast urban settlement near Llanos de Mojos in the Bolivian Amazon. Abandoned some 600 years ago, this urban center belonged to the socially complex Casarabe Culture (500-1400 C.E.).
The newly uncovered images showcase the intricacies of this ancient civilization, featuring monumental platform and pyramid architecture within urban centers. Raised causeways connect a network of suburban-like settlements, stretching for miles across a landscape shaped by an advanced water control and distribution system, complete with reservoirs and canals. Published in Nature, this discovery challenges the perception of the Amazon’s rainforest as a pristine wilderness by suggesting a history of dense population and urbanization predating recorded history.
Co-author Heiko Prümers from the German Archaeological Institute reflects on the myth created by Europeans, emphasizing the misconception of a vast, untouched jungle. He predicts, “I’m sure that in the next 10 or 20 years, we’ll see a lot of these cities, and some even bigger than the ones we are presenting in our paper.”
Anthropologist Michael Heckenberger, who has extensively studied pre-Columbian urbanism in the Amazon, praises the findings. While previous examples of Amazonian settlements exist, the Llanos de Mojos site stands out as a clear case of a fully urbanized landscape, featuring monumental architecture and well-defined larger centers. Heckenberger anticipates a broader understanding of the diverse ways in which ancient civilizations interacted with their landscapes and managed large populations.
The road to this discovery faced challenges, with hands-on archaeological work and earlier remote-sensing efforts uncovering numerous isolated sites across more than 1,700 square miles of the Llano de Mojos region. Inhabited year-round by the Casarabe, these settlements engaged in hunting, fishing, and farming staple crops like maize. Extensive causeways and canals, totaling 600 miles, were identified, but the logistical hurdles of mapping them in a remote tropical forest hindered efforts to connect the dots and understand their relationships.
Uncovering the presence of human-made earthworks, known as geoglyphs, within the Amazon forest is a challenging task. In 2018, satellite images revealed surprising findings in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state. Previously believed to be sparsely inhabited, large areas of the Amazon were discovered to be adorned with villages and peculiarly shaped geoglyphs. Even in regions away from major rivers, hundreds of villages were estimated to have accommodated up to a million people between 1250 and 1500 C.E., encompassing only about 7 percent of the entire Amazon basin. Despite this, the identification of larger urban centers anchoring these populated sites remains elusive. The satellite imagery allowed scientists to discern patterns that are not visible from ground level. It unveiled two significant settlements embedded within a broader settlement system, showcasing a level of social complexity previously not well-documented in the Amazon. The revelation left experts astounded by the remarkable findings and the potential implications for our understanding of the ancient civilizations that once thrived in the Amazon. As lidar technology continues to reveal hidden chapters in the Amazon’s history, the once-perceived wilderness transforms into a rich tapestry of ancient civilizations, rewriting the narrative of this enigmatic and awe-inspiring rainforest.
Source: Brian Handwerk
Science Correspondent
May 25, 2022
Photo: Poster from David Grann’s “The Lost city of Z”.
