Ancient Amazon civilisation laid bare by felled forest

[n2doc]

10 December 2009 by Linda Geddes

Signs of what could be a previously unknown ancient civilisation are emerging from beneath the felled trees of the Amazon. Some 260 giant avenues, ditches and enclosures have been spotted from the air in a region straddling Brazil's border with Bolivia.

The traditional view is that before the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese in the 15th century there were no complex societies in the Amazon basin – in contrast to the Andes further west where the Incas built their cities. Now deforestation, increased air travel and satellite imagery are telling a different story.

"It's never-ending," says Denise Schaan of the Federal University of Pará in Belém, Brazil, who made many of the new discoveries from planes or by examining Google Earth images. "Every week we find new structures." Some of them are square or rectangular, while others form concentric circles or complex geometric figures such as hexagons and octagons connected by avenues or roads. The researchers describe them all as geoglyphs.

more:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427383.800-ancient-amazon-civilisation-laid-bare-by-felled-forest.html

[applegrove]

1. Cool.

[shraby]

2. Fantastic finds!

[Arctic Dave]

3. Very cool and kinda sucks all in one.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Read lots more about this in "1491" ...

http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9781400032051

A really outlook-altering read. Highly recommended.

[diane in sf]

5. Let me add my recommendation, some of the most populous cities in the world at the time

were in the Americas. Unfortunately they didn't husband animals and the diseases brought in by Europeans (and probably Chinese explorers as well--read "1421: The Year China Discovered America," about the emperor's treasure fleet) who were habituated to things like measles, syphilis and hepatitus wiped out 95-97% of the population. Millions died, leaving an empty continent. Even the hoards of buffalo and homing pigeons that were around into the 19th century may have been artifacts of the vanished civilizations who were no longer harvesting these animals.

[MichaelHarris]

6. Have

the Mormons claimed it yet?

[Vehl]

7. this is great! reminds me of the nasca lines. nt