By Regina Sienra on October 27, 2023

There’s still so much we don’t know and haven’t discovered about the Amazon and its ancient inhabitants.

Many areas of the Amazon and the people who have called it home remain an enigma. Fortunately, technology has allowed archeologists to further learn about these ancient communities. Using LIDAR (light detection and ranging), researchers Vinicius Peripato and Luiz Aragão, aided by photographer Diego Gurgel, have unveiled a treasure. They were able to spot more than 20 previously unidentified Indigenous earthworks, of which they predict there are between 10,000 and 24,000 waiting to be discovered.

“Indigenous societies are known to have occupied the Amazon basin for more than 12,000 years, but the scale of their influence on Amazonian forests remains uncertain,” write the researchers from of Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research in a study published in Science. The team’s work also revealed a consistent set of domesticated tree species associated with the earthworks, which suggests these communities had active forestry practices.

During the pre-Columbian era, the Amazon was home to dense and complex societies throughout its expansive forested area, which spans 2.59 million square miles. “These ancient Indigenous societies had profound knowledge of earthmoving, riverine dynamics, soil enrichment, and plant and animal ecology, which allowed them to create domesticated landscapes that were more productive for humans,” the scientists explain. “With earthmoving techniques, Indigenous peoples created a wide variety of earthworks (i.e., ring ditches, geoglyphs, ponds, and wells), mostly between 1,500 and 500 years before present, with social, ceremonial, and defensive functions.”[…]

More: Ancient Indigenous Earthworks Found Hidden in the Amazon Forest