The lost ancient city network of the Amazon has been found. The city, which was built by the Casarabe people between 500-1400 AD, is located in the savanna forest of Llanos de Mojos, Bolivia, and has been hidden among thick forest trees for centuries.
Using Light Distance And Ranging (LIDAR), or optical remote sensing technology that measures the properties of scattered light to find distance and/or other information from distant targets, the city appears to feature a complex array of structures, different from other cities previously found in the area. the region.
The city has a 16-foot-high terrace that covers an area of 54 acres or the equivalent of 30 football fields, and there is a 69-foot-high conical pyramid.
An international team of researchers from the UK and Germany also discovered an extensive network of reservoirs, causeways and checkpoints, stretching for several miles in the area.
"This discovery challenges the view of Amazonia as a historically 'native' landscape, suggesting that it was home to early 'urbanism' created and maintained by indigenous people over thousands of years," the researchers said. 6/2022).
"We have long suspected that the most complex pre-Columbian societies in the entire basin developed in this part of the Bolivian Amazon, but this evidence is hidden under the forest 'canopy' and difficult to visit in person," said José Iriarte of the University of Exeter.
Until the late 20th century, there was doubt that the Amazon region could support life for anything other than hunter-gatherer tribes. The Mojos plains, on the southwestern outskirts of the Amazon region, flood several months of the year during the rainy season, making them unsuitable for permanent settlement.
But in recent decades, evidence has emerged showing irrigation, earthworks, large cities and causeways and canals that often lead for miles in straight lines across the savanna.
"This indicates a relatively dense settlement in pre-Hispanic times. Our goal was to conduct basic research and trace the settlement and life there," said Dr. Heiko Prümers of the German Archaeological Institute who was also involved in the research.
This research highlights the size and splendor of a community ceremonial center found buried in the forest. Early conventional surveys revealed terraced terrace areas, trench walls covering the site, and canals.
However, the dense vegetation where this settlement is located, prevented the researchers from seeing the structural details of the monumental mound and its surroundings.
To find out more, the researchers used LIDAR aerial laser technology for the first time in the Amazon region.
This involves surveying the terrain with a laser scanner mounted on a helicopter, small plane, or drone that transmits about 1.5 million laser beams per second.
The research team estimates that the scale of work and planning used to build settlements is unprecedented in Amazonia, and otherwise comparable only to ancient states in the central Andes.
The researchers also insist that these cities are built and managed not against nature, but rather using sustainable subsistence strategies that support conservation and maintain the rich biodiversity of the surrounding landscape.