A lost world in the heart of the Amazon rainforest was actually home to one MILLION people [tr]

UK Daily Mail ^ | March 27, 2018 | Phoebe Weston

[C19fan]

Parts of the Amazon previously thought to have been uninhabited were home to thriving populations of up to a million people from as early as 1250 AD, research shows.

Archaeologists have uncovered evidence there were up to 1,500 fortified villages in the rainforest away from major rivers - two-thirds of which are yet to be discovered.

By analysing charcoal remains and excavated pottery, researchers found a 1,100-mile (1,800km) stretch of southern Amazonia that was continuously occupied from 1250 until 1500 AD.

People had assumed ancient communities had preferred to live near these waterways, but the new evidence shows this was not the case.

[wbill]

1,500 fortified villages in the rainforest away from major rivers - two-thirds of which are yet to be discovered.

Sooooo.....how do they know that they're there?

[jim_trent]

I read the 1491 book and looked trough it carefully to find out how he came up with the famous 96% dead claim. There was just one page that essentially said that less than that wouldn’t sound as sensational and more than that would be unbelievable. He had absolutely NO firm proof for what he claimed and no other plagues in history have such a high death rate.

He wrote an interesting book, but it all hinged on the unproven 96%. I put it under fiction or fantasy.

[captain_dave]

Shows how quickly a preindustrial civilization can disappear

[IronJack]

Another reason rainforests are deathtraps.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks C19fan.

Here's the Anna Roosevelt keyword, sorted:

• * Human settlements far older than suspected discovered in South America. [2002]
• Rainforest Researchers Hit Paydirt (Farming 11K Years Ago in South America) [2002]
• An origin of new world agriculture in coastal Ecuador (12,000 BP) [2003]
• Amazonian find stuns researchers [2003]
• * Bird's-Eye View Of The Amazon (Airborne Archaeologist Challenges The Myth Of A Pristine Wilderness) [2004]
• Reproducing the Amazon's black soil could bolster fertility and remove carbon from atmosphere [2006]
• 'Brazilian Stonehenge' discovered [2006]
• 'Amazon Stonehenge' found in Brazil [2006]
• Another 'Stonehenge' discovered in Amazon [2006]
• Amazon rainforest 'could become a desert' [2006]
• Putting the carbon back: Black is the new green [2006]
• The African Source Of The Amazon's Fertilizer [2006]
• * Paper challenges 1491 Amazonian population theories [2007]
• Superdirt Made Lost Amazon Cities Possible [2008]
• Tracking the Ancestry of Corn Back 9,000 Years [2010]
• In Amazon, traces of an advanced civilization [2010]
• Stone age etchings found in Amazon basin as river levels fall [2010]
• Hidden shell middens reveal ancient human presence in Bolivian Amazon [2013]
• Searching for the Amazon's Hidden Civilizations [2014]
• Mysterious Earthen Rings Predate Amazon Rainforest [2014]
• Is the Amazon rainforest MAN-MADE? At least 8 MILLION humans may have lived and farmed the [tr] [2015]
• Is the Amazon rainforest MAN-MADE? At least 8 MILLION humans may have lived and farmed the basin [2015]

[T-Bone Texan]

"...Lost City of Z ping....."

We are watching that movie right now! We're at the part where the main dude gets approval from the Royal Society to go back to Amazonia.

Of course, with young children it takes several days to complete. The last Star Wars movie took an entire week!