Ecuador Archaeologists have discovered a sprawling network of cities deep in the Amazon rainforest dating back 2,500 years.
The area was surveyed using LiDAR technology using laser light. Photo: Antoine Dorison, Stéphen Rostain
Pre-Columbian settlements with long, straight streets, plazas and clusters of monuments were found in the Upano Valley of the Ecuadorian Amazon, in the eastern foothills of the Andes, according to research published on January 11 in the journal Science. The discovery of the largest and oldest network of masonry and excavations in the Amazon to date is the result of more than two decades of exploration in the region by a team of researchers from France, Germany, Ecuador and Puerto Rico, according to CNN .
The study began with fieldwork before deploying a remote sensing method called LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), which uses laser light to reveal structures beneath the dense canopy. Lead researcher Stéphen Rostain, an archaeologist and director of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), described the find as a special one. "LiDAR allowed us to get a general overview of the area and assess the size of the structures, revealing the entire road network," Rostain said.
According to Rostain, the first people to live there 3,000 years ago had small, scattered houses. However, sometime between 500 BC and 300-600 AD, the Kilamope and later Upano cultures began building mounds and erecting houses on them. The foundations were arranged around a low, square plaza. LiDAR data revealed more than 6,000 foundations in the southern half of the 600-square-kilometer survey area.
Most of the foundations were rectangular, although some were circular, measuring 20 by 10 meters, according to the study. They typically surrounded plazas in clusters of three or six. The plazas also had central platforms. The team also found monument complexes with larger platforms, which may have served civic or ceremonial functions. They identified at least 15 of the complexes when they discovered the settlement.
Some of the protected settlements were protected by ditches, and there were roadblocks near some of the larger compounds, suggesting that the inhabitants faced external threats or tensions between groups. Even the most remote compounds were connected to roads and had an extensive network of straight roads with curbs. In the open buffer zones between the compounds, the team found signs of cultivation, such as drainage fields and terraces, which were connected to trails.
The entire layout of the city suggests advanced technology at the time, the researchers said. The newly discovered urban network closely resembles other sites found in the rainforests of Panama, Guatemala, Belize, Brazil and Mexico, said archaeologist Carlos Morales-Aguilar, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin. He said the study provides compelling evidence of early urban planning in the Amazon and is an important contribution to understanding the cultures of indigenous peoples in the region.
An Khang (According to CNN )
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