Yeah- I am going to agree with José Iriarte, archaeologist at the University of Exeter, National Geographic Explorer, and the paper’s primary author, that we need to re-evaluate the history of the Amazon (and human history too- for that matter).
Forget small nomadic tribes and pristine jungle: the southern Amazon was likely covered in a network of large villages and ceremonial centers before Columbus.
Nature Communications
ISSN 2041-1723 (online)
The research, funded in part by the National Geographic Society and published in the journal Nature Communications, challenges a common perception of the pre-Columbian Amazon rain forest as sparsely populated. That perception has endured despite 16th-century accounts of large, interconnected villages that go against modern assumptions.
Nature Communications
ISSN 2041-1723 (online)
The model also showed that people wouldn’t necessarily have built close to rivers, an idea which runs counter to modern assumptions. It revealed that there are likely 1,300 geoglyphs and villages in a 154,000 square-mile swath of Southern Amazonia—two-thirds of which haven’t been found yet.
The computer model also predicted population densities that were much larger than expected. The team now thinks that between 500,000 and 1 million people once lived in just seven percent of the Amazon basin. That flies in the face of previous estimates that only about 2 million people lived in the entire Amazon basin.
Nature Communications
ISSN 2041-1723 (online)
The distribution of the potential sites suggests an interconnected, advanced series of fortified villages spanning over 1,100 miles that flourished between 1200 and 1500 A.D. “We need to re-evaluate the history of the Amazon,” said José Iriarte, archaeologist at the University of Exeter, National Geographic Explorer, and the paper’s primary author, in a press release.
Study:
Pre-Columbian earth-builders settled along the entire southern rim of the Amazon
READ HERE: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03510-7#Fig2
Source:
Ancient Architects made this 6 minute video discussing the discovery:
For a decade, archaeologists have been racing to study deep mysterious trenches slashed through the soil of the Amazon. Rings, squares and hexagons have pointed to long-forgotten human settlements in a region previously neglected by researchers.
But now, the extent of these settlements is finally being revealed. The discovery of 81 new archaeological sites has just been confirmed, which were home to up to a million people, in an area that occupied just 7% of the Amazon rainforest. Could this be the destination of the ancient Guatemalan Maya civilisation? Did they abandon Central America and travel into South America and settle?
WATCH HERE:
Once again we see our "known" history changing. This LIDAR has been a godsend to the archaeologists. Now we just need the old guard to accept the things they have been teaching for years is outdated history and open their minds to the 'new' history and findings.
Thanks for stopping by. Take care!