Ancient ‘lost valley of cities’ found in Amazon rainforest
Amazon rainforest has revealed evidence it was once a large-scale hub of interconnected cities that date back more than 2,500 years.The findings were published Thursday in the journal Science and detail the researchers’ work in mapping the network of settlements, which may be the earliest example of urbanism ever documented in the Amazon.“It was a lost valley of cities,” said Stéphen Rostain, first author of the study and a director of France’s National Center for Scientific Research. “It’s incredible.”The team of researchers identified at least 15 distinct settlements connected by a network of roads that stretched 10 to 20 kilometres.
The largest roads were found to be 10 metres at their widest.In total, more than 6,000 earthen platforms were mapped at the Ecuadorian site, each evidence of plazas, ceremonial buildings and residences built along the road system and surrounded by expansive, terraced fields and drainage ditches.What the research describes is a complex urban layout suggesting large-scale agriculture and a flourishing population. The hub of cities was likely home to some 10,000 farmers, though it may have been as populous as 15,000 or 30,000 at its peak, according to archaeologist Antoine Dorison, a study co-author.The site was occupied for around 1,000 years, from roughly 500 BC to around 300 to 600 AD — a period roughly contemporaneous with the Roman Empire in Europe.
The population of the Ecuadorian site is comparable to Roman-era London.“This shows a very dense occupation and an extremely complicated society,” said University of Florida archeologist Michael Heckenberger, who was not involved in the study. “For the region, it’s really in a class of its own in terms of how early it is.”The site was likely
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