Archaeologists Found a Mind-Blowing Cluster of Ancient Lost Civilizations

Lasers revealed a large settlement—rivaling even Mayan societies in complexity—that had been hidden for centuries.

• An estimated 90 percent of human Amazonian history is lost within the jungle itself. A new discovery has uncovered a small-but-substantial piece of that history.
• Using LIDAR, archeologists uncovered a settlement in eastern Ecuador rivaling the complexity of ancient civilizations found in Mexico and Central America.
• Although little is known about the people who lived there, the society flourished from 500 BCE until somewhere between 300 and 600 CE—and its population might’ve reached into the 100,00o range at its height.

The Amazon is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet,with some 3 million species living under its moist tropical canopy. But because of its dense vegetation and otherwise unforgiving landscape, the Amazon never played host to large ancient civilizations found elsewhere in the Americas—at least, that’s what we thought.

New research from scientists at the French National Center for Scientific Research has revealed the ruins of an ancient city in eastern Ecuador’s Upano Valley, along the foothills of the Andes. Through mapping 115 square miles with light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technology, the team found evidence of a 2,500-year-old settlement (named Sangay) that could’ve been home to a population of 10,000, or even 100,000 at one point. The crew, lead by Stéphen Rostain, published their remarkable discovery last week in the journal Science.

“It changes the way we see Amazonian cultures,” study co-author Antoine Dorison told the BBC. “Most people picture small groups, probably naked, living in huts and clearing land—this shows ancient people lived in complicated urban societies.’

Whatever people occupied this area, they likely thrived from around 500 BCE until somewhere between 300 and 600 CE. Although the LIDAR scans—which benefit from LIDAR’s unique ability to penetrate that all-encompassing forest canopy—show various platforms, plazas, arranged streets, and drainages, one of the most unique aspects is a complex road system that extends nearly 6 miles.

This system appears to have connected various urban centers, similar to how the Maya in Mexico and Guatemala arranged their urban networks. Interestingly, the roads are also nearly straight and contain right angles, which displays a level of construction sophistication that’d be difficult to achieve in the terrain found in the Amazon.

Although we don’t know much about the people who lived in these ancient cities (at least, not yet) archeologists already have a decent understanding of their diet. In addition to this ancient infrastructure, LIDAR also detected traces of drained fields where this ancient society likely grew their food, including maize, beans, sweet potatoes, and cassava. They also probably enjoyed a “chicha”—a kind of sweet beer—after a hard day’s work.

Future expeditions will hopefully take a closer look at this region in order to try and discover what these little-known people left behind.

When it comes to human habitation of the Amazon, archeologists can (for the most part) only scratch their heads and wonder what lies within. According to one estimate, some 90% of Amazon history lies undiscovered. But new technologies are bringing to light this ancient past and calling into question what we truly know about this beautiful, wild place.

“Such a discovery is another vivid example of the underestimation of Amazonia’s twofold heritage: environmental but also cultural, and therefore Indigenous,” the paper reads. “We believe that it is crucial to thoroughly revise our preconceptions of the Amazonian world.”

And this new discovery likely won’t be the last time we’ll have to do so.

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