Archaeologists have discovered a vast, pre-Hispanic settlement that had been lost in the Amazon rainforest for centuries. Until relatively recently, it was assumed that until Europeans arrived, the Amazon was a pristine wilderness, inhabited only by nomadic tribes who made no impact on the environment. But it now seems that, starting 1,500 years ago, Amazonians built and lived in complex urban centres, featuring earthen pyramids up to 22 metres high, elevated causeways and walled compounds. “This is the first clear evidence that there were urban societies in this part of the Amazon Basin,” says Dr Jonas Gregorio de Souza, of the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.
The settlement was found by digitally “deforesting” the area, in Bolivia, using lidar technology: this involves sending laser pulses at the ground from a…