A vast region of the Amazon forest in Brazil was home to a
complex of ancient towns in which about 50,000 people lived,
according to scientists assisted by satellite images of the
region.
The scientists, whose findings were published in the journal
Science, described clusters of towns and smaller villages connected
by complex road networks and housing a society doomed by the
arrival of Europeans five centuries ago.
European colonists and the diseases they brought with them probably
killed most of the inhabitants, the researchers said.
The settlements, consisting of networks of walled towns and
smaller villages organized around a central plaza, are now almost
entirely overgrown by the forest.
"These are not cities, but this is urbanism, built around towns,"
University of Florida anthropologist Mike Heckenberger said in a
statement.
"If we look at your average medieval town or your average Greek
polis, most are about the scale of those we find in this part of
the Amazon. Only the ones we find are much more complicated in
terms of their planning," Heckenberger added.
Helped by satellite imagery, the researchers spent more than a
decade uncovering and mapping the lost communities.
Prior to the arrival of Europeans starting in 1492, the Americas
were home to many prosperous and impressive societies and large
cities.
These findings add to the understanding of the various
pre-Columbian civilizations.
The existence of the ancient settlements in the Upper Xingu region
of the Amazon in north-central Brazil means what many experts had
considered virgin tropical forests were in fact heavily affected by
past human activity, the scientists said.
The US and Brazilian scientists worked with a member of the
Kuikuro, an indigenous Amazonian people descended from settlements'
original inhabitants.
