Lidar reveals vast ancient Amazonian society beneath the canopy
TL;DR Summary
A LiDAR survey across roughly 4,500 square kilometers of southwestern Amazonia suggests the Aquiry built up to 24,000–30,000 earthworks and supported 1.2–3 million people at their peak around 200 CE, indicating a densely populated, road-connected landscape rather than an untouched rainforest.
- 'Completely Transformed My Understanding': Scientists Uncover Hundreds of Hidden Structures Beneath The Amazon ScienceAlert
- Over 20,000 precolonial earthworks in the Southwest Amazonia Nature
- An ancient civilization of millions once flourished in the Amazon Phys.org
- Lasers reveal hundreds of geoglyphs made by a mysterious civilization in the Amazon rainforest thousands of years ago Live Science
- Lost civilisation in the Amazon may have numbered 3 million people New Scientist
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