What do Rome and Ecuador’s rainforests have in common? They both held ancient, thriving cities! This week, scientists announced that they have mapped bustling settlements in the Amazon that date back 2,000 years.
Archaeologist Stéphen Rostain first spotted a series of earthen mounds and buried roads in Ecuador more than 20 years ago. He says he “wasn’t sure how it all fit together” at the time.
Advanced technology was Rostain’s ally. Planes beamed laser pulses into the forest area and measured their path of return. Landscape normally hidden by trees could finally be mapped. The laser-sensor maps showed the sites are a dense network of communities connected by roads. This society likely lasted about 1,000 years.
The journal Science reports Rostain was thrilled with the mapping discoveries. “Each day it was Christmas, with a new gift,” he says. His team identified five large settlements and 10 smaller ones over a space of around 115 square miles. The cities had more than 6,000 earthen mounds surrounded by rectangular farming fields with drainage canals. Crops like corn and sweet potato grew on hillside terraces. Wide roads joined the cities. Streets ran between houses. The largest roads stretched for six to 12 miles.
The Upano people occupied the land between 500 B.C. and A.D. 300 to 600. That’s roughly the same period that the Roman Empire flourished in Europe.
Scientists estimate at least 10,000 people lived in the rainforest territory. Archaeologist Antoine Dorison believes perhaps 15,000 to 30,000 made up the populace at its peak. That’s comparable to the estimated population of London during the Roman era. London was Britain’s largest city at the time.
José Iriarte is a University of Exeter archaeologist. He believes an elaborate system of organized labor built the roads and earthen mounds. The Incas and Mayas tended to build with stone. But Amazon dwellers had a shortage of stone and resorted to mud. “It’s still an immense amount of labor,” says Iriarte.
The Amazon is often thought of as a “pristine wilderness” with only small bands of hunters and gatherers. “But recent discoveries have shown us how much more complex the past really is,” Iriarte says.
Scientists also recently have found evidence of intricate rainforest societies in Bolivia and Brazil. These predate European contact elsewhere in the Amazon.
“There’s always been an incredible diversity of people and settlements in the Amazon,” says Rostain. “We’re just learning more about them.”
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. — Matthew 5:14
