Archaeologists have discovered a group of lost cities in the Amazon rainforest that were home to at least 10,000 farmers about 2,000 years ago.
More than two decades ago, archaeologist Stéphen Rostain first discovered a series of earthen mounds and buried roads in Ecuador. But at the time, “I wasn’t sure how it all fit together,” said Rostain, one of the researchers who reported the finding Thursday in the journal Science.
Recent mapping using laser sensor technology revealed that these sites were part of a dense network of settlements and connecting roads, hidden in the forested foothills of the Andes, that lasted around 1,000 years.
“It was a lost valley of cities,” said Rostain, who directs research at France’s National Center for Scientific Research: “It’s incredible.”
The settlements were occupied by the Upano people between approximately 500 BC. C. and 300 to 600 AD. C., a period roughly contemporary with the Roman Empire in Europe, the researchers found.
Residential and ceremonial buildings erected on more than 6,000 mounds of earth were surrounded by agricultural fields with drainage canals. The largest roads were 10 meters (33 ft) wide and extended 10 to 20 kilometers (6 to 12 miles).
While it is difficult to estimate populations, the site was home to at least 10,000 inhabitants, and perhaps as many as 15,000 or 30,000 at its peak, said archaeologist Antoine Dorison, a co-author of the study at the same French institute. That’s comparable to the estimated population of Roman-era London, then Britain’s largest city.
“This shows a very dense occupation and an extremely complicated society,” said University of Florida archaeologist Michael Heckenberger, who was not involved in the study. “For the region, it’s really unique in terms of how early it is.”
José Iriarte, an archaeologist at the University of Exeter, said an elaborate system of organized labor would have been required to build the roads and thousands of earthen mounds.
“The Incas and Mayans built with stone, but the people of the Amazon usually did not have stone available to build: they built with mud. “It is still an immense amount of work,” said Iriarte, who was not involved in the research.
The Amazon is often thought of as “pristine wilderness with only small groups of people. But recent discoveries have shown us how much more complex the past really is,” he said.
Recently, scientists have also found evidence of intricate rainforest societies that preceded European contact in other parts of the Amazon, including Bolivia and Brazil.
“There has always been an incredible diversity of people and settlements in the Amazon, not just one way of life,” Rostain said. “We’re just learning more about them.”
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