Amazon village, Iquitos area, Peru
photo by Madeline Horn
photo by Madeline Horn
This article in the New York Times discusses the large earthworks discovered under the forests cover of the Amazon in Brazil and Bolivia. The earthworks consist of large shapes (such as circles and squares) connected by roads. Researchers have not found evidence of human settlement in or on the earthworks, leading them to believe they are ceremonial. This means that thousands of people could have been settled enough to build massive ceremonial structures in the Amazon. It also means that large sections of land , which is now forested, were once used for agriculture.
The article sparks my curiosity by positing that there may have been towns connected by roads featuring large earthworks where thousands of people lived. This is a revelation. I love it when archaeology presents us with a new way of looking at the past. The earthworks were first discovered in the 1970s, yet scientists did not investigate thoroughly until the 1990s. What other ancient mysteries are out there waiting to be discovered?
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