Laser-sensor technology reveals ancient cities in Amazon rainforest

January 13, 2024 5:52 PM

Laser-sensor technology reveals ancient cities in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest. The settlements were occupied around 500 BC and 300 to 600 AD — a period roughly contemporaneous with the Roman Empire in Europe.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (9 comments total)

My first thought was Tim Curry talking about the Lost City Of Zinj, but that was in the Congo, and this is of course the Amazon.

The myth of the killer ape is true!
posted by hippybear at 5:56 PM on January 13

Really cool! I'd been playing around with getting a Science subscription, and this bumped me over the edge into a decision.
posted by AdamCSnider at 9:31 PM on January 13 [1 favorite]

Wonder what the culture was like of a society that size over so many centuries ... one tidbit is they've found painted pottery, as well as jugs containing the residue of chicha, a maize-based alcoholic drink.
posted by airing nerdy laundry at 10:17 PM on January 13 [1 favorite]

This is so cool.
posted by whatevernot at 4:50 AM on January 14 [1 favorite]

I recommend The Lost CIty of the Monkey God by Preston, which tells the tale of a similar discovery in Honduras.
posted by BigLankyBastard at 5:38 AM on January 14 [2 favorites]

That’s great—Ecuador can use some good news lately.
posted by gottabefunky at 11:27 AM on January 14

These are the days of miracle and wonder
posted by 4th number at 1:06 PM on January 14 [2 favorites]

This discovery was anticipated in Charles C. Mann's excellent book 1491. He describes a debate amongst scholars about the human population in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans and their diseases. The big population school argues that indigenous populations had transformed much of the American landscape to suit human needs. Then diseases collapsed those societies. European colonists arrived just as nature itself started colonizing abandoned fields. Some of the Indigenous survivors of the collapse were encountered by Europeans as bands eking out a living in the forests.

Obviously the argument is more nuanced than my caricature of it. But it is interesting to think about in the context of the recent discussion about colonizing Mars. European colonists almost all died trying to set up farms in a landscape that was already modified by humans for agriculture. Looking forward to more discoveries and more rewrites of the history books.
posted by SnowRottie at 1:28 PM on January 14 [7 favorites]

You know, Quasimodo predicted all this.
posted by airing nerdy laundry at 8:32 PM on January 14