The Amazon rainforest hides thousands of records of ancient communities

2023-10-06 11:19:27

MADRID, 6 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Amazon rainforest can host more than 10,000 records of pre-Columbian earthworks, built before the arrival of the Europeans.

A new study combines technology from cutting-edge remote sensing with archaeological data and statistical models to estimate how many earthworks may still be hidden beneath the canopy of the Amazon rainforest and where these structures are most likely to be found.

The job, published in Sciencewas carried out by a team of 230 researchers from 156 institutions located in 24 countries on four continentsled by Brazilian researchers Vinicius Peripato, doctoral student in Remote Sensing at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), and Luiz Aragão.

“Our study suggests that the Amazon rainforest may not be as pristine as many believe, since when we seek a better understanding of the extent of pre-Columbian human occupation throughout it, We are surprised by a significant number of sites still unknown to science,” tell Peripatus

The team of scientists made this discovery after identifying 24 new archaeological sites from the air using LIDAR technology. This sensor allows the reconstruction of surface elements in a very detailed 3D model.

“Given the large amount of information contained in this data, we embarked on an archaeological investigation. We investigated a total of 0.08% of the Amazon and found 24 structures not previously cataloged in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso, Acre, Amapá, Amazonas and Pará,” Peripato explained.

Using all the earthworks found so far (961), the team quantified how many structures have yet to be unraveled and showed that dozens of tree species are related. with these ancient occupations dating back to between 1,500 and 500 years ago. These structures are known as “earthworks” and predate the arrival of Europeans to the continent.

They are also typically associated with other types of landscape modifications, confirming the presence of indigenous occupations in various regions of the Amazon (such as the Amazonian dark lands and the presence of domesticated species, among other evidence).

“We predict that 90% of the Amazon forest has very little chance of having earthworks, so This type of modification in the Amazon forests may have occurred mainly in 10% of its area“said Hans ter Steege of Utrecht University.