A group of archaeologists discovered a set of lost cities built 2,500 years ago back in the Amazonas Jungle, in Ecuador. According to reports, it was home to at least 10,000 people.
30 years ago, Stephen Rostainarchaeologist National Scientific Research Center of Francebegan to dig in the Upano Valley. These works focused on two places called Sangay and Kilapomewhere mounds were found around central plazas, pottery decorated with paintings, and jugs containing remains of corn beer.
As the mapping revealed, these sites were part of a network of settlements and communication routes that were nestled in the mountains of the Andes mountains.
According to statements Ronstain made to Science magazine, they knew that there were “many mounds, many structures. But he didn’t have a complete vision of the region.” At the time he stated that he “wasn’t sure how everything was going to fit together.”
Archaeologists discovered a total of five large establishments and ten smaller ones which were located in the Upano valley, in about 300 square kilometers.
They also revealed that there were roads that connected the cities to each other and there were agricultural fields surrounded by terraces where people planted crops. Fernando Mejiaarchaeologist of the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, stated that it is “town planning“.
The co-author of the study, the archaeologist Antoine Dorison He assured that it is difficult to estimate the population, although they believe that the site housed at least “10,000 inhabitants and perhaps up to 15,000 or 30,000 at its peak.” For its part, Michael Heckenberger, archaeologistat University of Florida, did not participate in the study but did think that it shows a “very dense occupation and an extremely complicated“.
FinallyJosé Iriarte, archaeologist at the University of Exeter, He said it will have required an elaborate system of work to build the roads. “The Incas and the Mayans built with stones, but the people of the Amazon I didn’t usually have stones available to build, so they did it with mud“he explained.
Recently, scientists have had other discoveries, such as existence of societies in the rainforest prior to European contact in other places in the Amazonas Bolivia and Brazil.
Ronstain also commented on this finding and maintained that “there has always been an incredible diversity of people and settlements in the Amazonnot only in the way of living”.
Source: Ambito
