Ancient network of cities discovered in Amazon; Mirroring Belize’s Maya sites

By Horace Palacio: A groundbreaking archaeological discovery has been made deep within the Amazon rainforest, revealing an extensive network of ancient cities, some dating back 2,500 years. This revelation, detailed in a recent study published in the journal Science, was shared by WPBF.com.

The findings in the Upano Valley of Amazonian Ecuador showcase pre-Hispanic settlements characterized by structured urban planning, including wide streets, long, straight roads, plazas, and clusters of monumental platforms. These structures, hidden beneath the thick canopy of the rainforest, were unveiled using a remote sensing technology called light detection and ranging, or LiDAR.

Lead study author Stéphen Rostain, an archeologist and director of Research at France’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), described the discovery as “incredible,” highlighting that LiDAR helped to reveal a “complete web” of dug roads and intricate city planning.

The research, spanning over two decades and involving a team from France, Germany, Ecuador, and Puerto Rico, started with traditional fieldwork before deploying LiDAR. This technology allowed the team to penetrate the dense forest cover, revealing over 6,000 platforms within a surveyed area of 232 square miles.

These urban features, primarily rectangular but occasionally circular, surrounded plazas often adorned with a central platform. In addition to residential areas, the team discovered monumental complexes with larger platforms, suggesting civic or ceremonial uses.

Interestingly, the settlements, some fortified with ditches and road obstructions, were interconnected through an extensive network of straight, curb-lined roads, pathways, and cultivated lands, indicating a sophisticated and organized society. Rostain refers to these as “garden cities,” signifying a shift in understanding the societal structures of Indigenous populations in the Amazon.

The study reveals that these ancient Amazonian cities were not isolated phenomena but part of a broader pattern of urban development across the Americas, including regions like Panama, Guatemala, Belize, Brazil, and Mexico. Carlos Morales-Aguilar, a landscape archeologist at the University of Texas at Austin, noted the parallels with similar sites across the tropical forests, including a vast interconnected network of Maya cities and villages discovered in northern Guatemala.

This discovery not only sheds light on the advanced urban and agricultural planning of early societies in the Amazon but also challenges the notion of Amazonia as a pristine, untouched forest. It suggests a history of vibrant, complex civilizations, akin to a “nest of ants,” as Rostain metaphorically describes, bustling with activity and advanced engineering.

The revelation of these ancient cities in the Amazon adds to a growing body of evidence that ancient civilizations across the Americas, including those in Belize and Guatemala, were more advanced and interconnected than previously understood. The use of LiDAR technology has been pivotal in unearthing these sites, hidden for centuries under dense forest canopies.

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