Ancient Amazon civilisation laid bare by felled forest
Dec 10th, 2009
From New Scientist: Ancient Amazon civilisation laid bare by felled forest.
Signs of what could be a previously unknown ancient civilisation are emerging from beneath the felled trees of the Amazon. Some 260 giant avenues, ditches and enclosures have been spotted from the air in a region straddling Brazil’s border with Bolivia.
The traditional view is that before the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese in the 15th century there were no complex societies in the Amazon basin – in contrast to the Andes further west where the Incas built their cities. Now deforestation, increased air travel and satellite imagery are telling a different story. [continue]
Fascinating stuff, but it’s a shame that discovery of such sites are the result of economic development and forest clearance, destruction of the existing cultures.