Lost Cities of the Amazon Discovered From the Air

smithsonianmag.com ^ | May 25, 2022 | Brian Handwerk

[BenLurkin]

Perched in a helicopter some 650 feet up, scientists used light-based remote sensing technology (lidar) to digitally deforest the canopy and identify the ancient ruins of a vast urban settlement around Llanos de Mojos in the Bolivian Amazon that was abandoned some 600 years ago. The new images reveal, in detail, a stronghold of the socially complex Casarabe Culture (500-1400 C.E.) with urban centers boasting monumental platform and pyramid architecture. Raised causeways connected a constellation of suburban-like settlements, which stretched for miles across a landscape that was shaped by a massive water control and distribution system with reservoirs and canals. The site, described this week in Nature, is the most striking discovery to suggest that the Amazon’s rainforest ‘wilderness’ was actually heavily populated, and in places quite urbanized, for many centuries before recorded history of the region began.

Among the 26 sites were two large urban centers, Landivar and Cotoca. They were already known to exist, but the new maps detailed their archaeological complexity and vast size (1.2 and .5 sq miles respectively). Each large center is surrounded by successive rings of moat and rampart fortifications. The sites boast artificial terraces, huge earthen-platform buildings and conical pyramids over 70 feet tall. All these impressive civic and ceremonial buildings are also oriented to the north-northwest... The aerial view with trees stripped away revealed two centers, each anchored by a large network of regional settlements connected by numerous causeways. Those passageways radiate out from the centers like spokes on a wheel, and stretch for several miles. These connect sub-urban settlements, ranging from small settlements closer to the centers to more distant and even smaller sites that may have been used as temporary campsites. Similarly, canals also stretch from the main centers and conn

[ought-six]

Thanks for the tip. I will check it out.

[Rebelbase]

"scientists used light-based remote sensing technology (lidar) to digitally deforest the canopy and identify the ancient ruins of a vast urban settlement"

[Conan the Librarian]

I WAS just reminded he wrote Killers of the Flower Moon. A GREAT Book in itself.

[Grampa Dave]

‘First Americans Were Australian’

BBC ^ | 6-15-2003
Posted on 6/15/2003, 9:18:19 PM by blam

‘https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/929661/posts

First Americans were Australian’

[Grampa Dave]

You can order a paperback copy for about $10 from Amazon.

[SunkenCiv]

Blimey.