The Amazon Looks Untouched. Lasers Reveal a Lost Civilization that Was Once Home to 3 Million People
Researchers used lidar to map nearly 400 hidden earthworks and estimate the Aquiry civilization may have supported 1.25 million to 3 million people.
- Archaeologists used lidar technology to discover nearly 400 previously undocumented geoglyphs across 1,740 square miles of the Amazon rainforest, challenging the belief that the region remained an untouched wilderness before European arrival.
- Researchers attribute these structures to the Aquiry civilization, which peaked between 100 and 300 C.E., supporting up to 3 million inhabitants across 70,600 square miles of what is now northern Brazil.
- Lead author Martti Pärssinen, an archaeologist at the University of Helsinki, stated these sites served as "venues for gatherings, political decision-making and displays of chiefly generosity, ritual dancing, music, feasting, athletic competitions and ball games."
- Published in Nature on July 29, the study contradicts the pristine-wilderness theory; many scientists now accept pre-Columbian accounts of dense populations were accurate, though some experts urge caution regarding population estimates.
- Eduardo Neves, an archaeologist at the University of São Paulo, warned this heritage is "highly threatened by logging and soybean farming," emphasizing the urgency of further excavation to understand the geoglyphs' cultural significance.
13 Articles
13 Articles
In the west of the Amazon basin, researchers use laser technology to discover more than 400 earth structures. Around 2000 years ago, millions of people lived there. This distorts the understanding of the past of Amazonia.
The Economic Times
Times of IndiaThe Amazon looks untouched. Lasers reveal a lost civilization that was once home to 3 million people
Ancient earthwork centers reveal a sprawling Aquiry civilization once thrived. This society supported millions across a vast Amazonian region. Researchers used laser technology to map hidden structures beneath the canopy. The forest itself was engineered by these ancient inhabitants for cultivation. This discovery significantly rewrites the history of the Amazon basin.
Chicago Tribune
West Hawaii TodayArchaeologists find hundreds of ancient glyphs in the Amazon
Flying over the southwestern Amazon, archaeologists have discovered hundreds of ancient, monumental designs carved in the earth that hint at complex societies in the rainforest a millennium before Spanish and Portuguese colonists arrived.
The pre-Columbian Amazon was not a pristine, nearly deserted wilderness. New research has uncovered nearly four hundred previously unknown geoglyphs in southwestern Brazil that scientists attribute to the recently described Aquira civilization. The monumental formations were part of a vast cultural landscape that this ancient society purposefully reshaped, cultivated, and utilized much like humans do today.
Hundreds of Geoglyphs Discovered in Amazon Rainforest - Archaeology Magazine
Lidar image of earthworks at the site of Fazenda Atlântican, Brazil HELSINKI, FINLAND—Live Science reports that a lidar survey of more than 1,700 square miles of the Amazon rainforest in western Brazil has detected nearly 400 earthworks dated to between 600 B.C. and A.D. 850. The geoglyphs were constructed by the Aquiry, a multicultural group made up of as many as three million people, based upon an estimate of 300 people needed to build and mai…
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