Ancient Amazonian Civilization Built Massive Earthworks
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Ancient Amazonian Civilization Built Massive Earthworks
- Recent aerial laser scanning has revealed evidence of a vast pre-Columbian civilization, the Aquiry, which may have supported between 1.25 million and 3 million people in the southwestern Amazon rainforest around 2,000 years ago.
- Archaeologist Martti Pärssinen of the University of Helsinki is a lead researcher in the ongoing study of these ancient earthworks, known as geoglyphs, which challenge previous assumptions about the Amazon's pre-colonial population density.
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Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of a sophisticated and populous ancient civilization, dubbed the Aquiry, that thrived in the southwestern Amazon rainforest between approximately 100 C.E. and 300 C.E. Using advanced aerial laser scanning technology (lidar) to penetrate the dense forest canopy, researchers have identified hundreds of previously undocumented geometric earthworks, or geoglyphs, in what is now northern Brazil.
These geoglyphs, which include complex shapes like pentagrams, octagons, circles, and squares, were likely constructed as public, ceremonial, and political centers for gatherings and rituals. The scale of these constructions, some spanning up to 123 acres with ditches 40 feet wide and 16 feet deep, suggests a highly organized society capable of monumental building without metal tools or animals. Researchers estimate that the Aquiry civilization could have encompassed an area of over 70,600 square miles and may have built as many as 23,000 to 30,000 geoglyphs across the broader region.
The discovery challenges the long-held belief that the Amazon rainforest was an untouched wilderness before European arrival. Instead, it provides further evidence that pre-Columbian Amazonian societies actively shaped and managed their environment, with populations potentially reaching between 8 to 10 million across the entire Amazon Basin. The Aquiry civilization appears to have collapsed and abandoned their geoglyphs between 850 and 950 C.E., though the reasons for this decline remain a mystery, potentially linked to the collapse of other precolonial civilizations like the Maya.