Laser technology unveils 2500 year old hidden Amazonian city

Hidden within the dense foliage of the Amazon, archaeologists have uncovered the remnants of an expansive ancient city. Utilizing LIDAR, a cutting edge laser mapping technology, a research team from France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) conducted an in depth examination of the concealed landscape.

The detailed laser imagery revealed intricate networks of roadways, platforms, and plazas that rivaled the sophistication of those built by the Mayan civilization in Central America. These concealed remains were uncovered in the upper Amazon and are thought to be from a society that existed 2500 years ago.

“This original 2500 year old society constitutes the earliest and largest low density agrarian urbanism documented in the Amazon thus far,” mentioned the . It took 20 years to confirm the findings Over two decades ago, CNRS archaeologist Stéphen Rostain first spotted the remnants of these cities.

LIDAR technology allowed researchers to peek through the forest canopy, exposing previously unknown features of mounds and other structures inside the communities of Amazonian Ecuador's Upano Valley, located in the eastern foothills of the Andes. Through extensive fieldwork and the use of Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) mapping, the study team detected around “6000 anthropogenic rectangular earthen platforms and plaza structures.” These architectural elements were intricately connected by footpaths and roads, which covered a broad survey area of 300 square kilometers.

The presence of these structures aided the identification of 15 separate habitation sites of varied sizes. Examining the structures, road networks, and additional ruins, the authors believe that this infrastructure was built and inhabited between around 500 BCE and 300 to 600 CE. It was mostly done by communities belonging to the Kilamope and later Upano cultures.

The study team highlights that it is difficult to estimate the exact population that once lived in this region at any given time. Reportedly, it likely ranged in the tens of thousands. The eastern area of Ecuador lies under the impact of a volcano, which may have contributed to the society's decline.

The findings may shape our understanding of the historical narrative concerning the inhabitants of the Amazon. “Such a discovery is another vivid example of the underestimation of Amazonia’s twofold heritage: environmental but also cultural, and therefore Indigenous,” the study mentioned. “…we believe that it is crucial to thoroughly revise our preconceptions of the Amazonian world and, in doing so, to reinterpret contexts and concepts in the necessary light of an inclusive and participatory science.” The findings were published in the journal A dense system of pre Hispanic urban centers has been found in the Upano Valley of Amazonian Ecuador, in the eastern foothills of the Andes.

Fieldwork and light detection and ranging (LIDAR) analysis have revealed an anthropized landscape with clusters of monumental platforms, plazas, and streets following a specific pattern intertwined with extensive agricultural drainages and terraces as well as wide straight roads running over great distances.

Archaeological excavations date the occupation from around 500 BCE to between 300 and 600 CE. The most notable landscape feature is the complex road system extending over tens of kilometers, connecting the different urban centers, thus creating a regional scale network. Such extensive early development in the Upper Amazon is comparable to similar Maya urban systems recently highlighted in Mexico and Guatemala..