tomder55
Jan 21, 2024, 04:54 AM
This discovery rewrites the history of the western hemisphere. We believed in the romantic notion that the Amazon region was populated by primitive nomadic small tribes living in symbiotic relations with the land . We knew about more complex cultures in South America. But none were known of in the Amazon.
2500 years ago the Greeks were divided into city states and were advancing the foundations of western civilization. The Chinese Zhou dynasty was in power. In Mexico the Mayan civilization flourished . The Mayans were farmers . Their cities were just emerging .
This complex society discovered in the Amazon dates back at least that far.
What was discovered was a city interconnected by highway and canal systems in Ecuador’s Upano Valley, which was historically assumed to be sparsely populated. What are the chances of there only being one city in the region? Presumably the city emerged from a larger civilization yet to be uncovered.
The city was built around 2,500 years ago, and people lived there for up to 1,000 years, according to archaeologists.
It is difficult to accurately estimate how many people lived there at any one time, but scientists say it is certainly in the 10,000s if not 100,000s.
Huge ancient lost city found in the Amazon (bbc.com) (https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67940671)
“This is older than any other site we know in the Amazon. We have a Eurocentric view of civilization, but this shows we have to change our idea about what is culture and civilization.”
“It’s a gold rush scenario, especially for the Americas and the Amazon,” says Christopher Fisher, an archaeologist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins who has scanned sites throughout the Americas but was not involved in the new research. “Scientists are demonstrating conclusively that there were a lot more people in these areas, and that they significantly modified the landscape,” he says. “This is a paradigm shift in our thinking about how extensively people occupied these areas.”
An ancient, massive urban complex has been found in the Ecuadorian Amazon (sciencenews.org) (https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ancient-urban-complex-ecuador-amazon-laser)
2500 years ago the Greeks were divided into city states and were advancing the foundations of western civilization. The Chinese Zhou dynasty was in power. In Mexico the Mayan civilization flourished . The Mayans were farmers . Their cities were just emerging .
This complex society discovered in the Amazon dates back at least that far.
What was discovered was a city interconnected by highway and canal systems in Ecuador’s Upano Valley, which was historically assumed to be sparsely populated. What are the chances of there only being one city in the region? Presumably the city emerged from a larger civilization yet to be uncovered.
The city was built around 2,500 years ago, and people lived there for up to 1,000 years, according to archaeologists.
It is difficult to accurately estimate how many people lived there at any one time, but scientists say it is certainly in the 10,000s if not 100,000s.
Huge ancient lost city found in the Amazon (bbc.com) (https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67940671)
“This is older than any other site we know in the Amazon. We have a Eurocentric view of civilization, but this shows we have to change our idea about what is culture and civilization.”
“It’s a gold rush scenario, especially for the Americas and the Amazon,” says Christopher Fisher, an archaeologist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins who has scanned sites throughout the Americas but was not involved in the new research. “Scientists are demonstrating conclusively that there were a lot more people in these areas, and that they significantly modified the landscape,” he says. “This is a paradigm shift in our thinking about how extensively people occupied these areas.”
An ancient, massive urban complex has been found in the Ecuadorian Amazon (sciencenews.org) (https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ancient-urban-complex-ecuador-amazon-laser)