Lost City Revealed: Amazon’s Thriving Metropolis from 2000 Years Ago

Traces of an ancient city that thrived around 2000 years ago in the Amazon region near the South American Andes have recently been uncovered.

In an online publication on the 11th (local time), the prestigious scientific journal Science featured a research paper by a team from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), confirming the existence of the remains of an ancient city in the upper Amazon.

According to the research team’s findings, it is estimated that people inhabited this area from approximately 300 to 600 BC, verified in the eastern foothills of the Upano River in Ecuador.

In the abstract of their paper, the research team described their findings, noting that their field surveys and LiDAR analysis revealed a structured landscape characterized by squares and roads arranged in a distinct pattern. They also identified an extensive network of agricultural drainage systems and wide, straight roads in the area.

The overall structure comprises residential and religious buildings on over 6000 earth mounds, encircled by agricultural lands with drainage systems.

One of the most remarkable aspects is the intricate road system connecting various settlements, forming an extensive regional network. The road network exhibits impressive sophistication, with the largest roads spanning 10 meters in width and ranging from 10 to 20 kilometers in length, as noted by the research team.

The researchers emphasized the similarities to the city systems found in recent discoveries of ancient Mayan ruins in Mexico and Guatemala.

Prof Stephen Rostain, speaking to the British BBC, remarked, “This is older than any other site we know in the Amazon,” he added, “We have a Eurocentric view of civilization, but this shows we have to change our idea about what is culture and civilization.”

Antoine Dorison, an archaeologist from Paris 1 University in France and co-author of the paper, estimated that the population of the ruins might have ranged from a minimum of 10,000 to a maximum of 30,000 residents. He drew a comparison to the population size of Roman-era London, as reported by the AP.

José Iriarte, an archaeologist from the University of Exeter in the UK, described the ruins as indicative of a highly organized labor system. He noted the contrast in construction materials between the Amazonians, who utilized mud for its availability, and the Incas and Mayans, who predominantly used stone. Iriarte further remarked that while there has been a tendency to view the Amazon as a vast, wild area sparsely populated by people in harmony with nature, recent discoveries suggest that the region’s inhabitants were developing a more complex society.