28 May 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

The Amazon rainforest was once home to ancient cities – A vast network of 2,500-year-old garden cities

Aerial surveys have revealed the largest 2,500-year-old ancient cities in the Amazon, hidden for thousands of years by lush vegetation and connected by an extensive road network.

The Amazon rainforest was once home to ancient cities, confirms ‘Science’ magazine, which has published a description of Ecuador’s largest and oldest known Amazonian settlement.

An international study published on Thursday, January 11, in Science, reveals a network of garden cities along the Upano River in Ecuador, dating back to 500 BC. It’s the oldest and largest urban network in Amazonia.

It is often assumed that the Amazon rainforest was largely untouched by humans before the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus reached the Americas in the 15th century.

However, the first Europeans reported seeing many farms and towns in the region. Francisco de Orellana, a Spaniard, set out from the eastern foothills of the Ecuadorian Andes at the end of 1541 with a few dozen men, embarking on an amazing river journey that would take them from west to east across the entire continent of South America, ending in the Atlantic Ocean via the Amazon River. Gaspar de Carvajal, a Dominican national, wrote about the dangerous 10-month expedition in which he was ambushed by an Indigenous tribesperson and lost an eye due to an arrow.

In the account entitled Descubrimiento del rio de las Amazonas (“Discovery of the Amazon River”), Carvajal depicted densely populated riverbanks and what resembles an urban cluster: “No village was more than a crossbow shot away from the other (…) and there was a village that stretched for five leagues without interruption from house to house, which was a wonderful thing to see.” At the time, people took this description to be a fabrication.

Kunguints site, Upano Valley, Ecuador. Complexes of rectangular platforms are arranged around low squares and distributed along wide, dug-out streets. IMAGE LIDAR A. DORISON ET S. ROSTAIN

These reports, long dismissed, have in recent decades been backed up by discoveries of ancient earthworks and extensive dark soils created by farmers. One estimate puts the pre-Columbian population of the Amazon as high as 8 million.

The area lies in the shadow of a volcano that created rich local soils but also may have led to the destruction of the society.

“This is older than any other site we know in the Amazon. We have a Eurocentric view of civilisation, but this shows we have to change our idea about what is culture and civilisation,” says Prof Stephen Rostain, director of investigation at the National Centre for Scientific Research in France, who led the research.

“The settlements are much bigger than others in the Amazon,” says Stéphen Rostain. “They are comparable with Maya sites.”

The city was built around 2,500 years ago, and people lived there for up to 1,000 years, according to archaeologists. What’s more, these cities are also older than other pre-Columbian ones discovered in the Amazon. Why the people who built them disappeared isn’t clear.

This LiDAR technology found 6,000 rectangular platforms measuring about 20m (66 ft) by 10m (33 ft) and 2-3m high. They were arranged in groups of three to six units around a plaza with a central platform.

The scientists believe many were homes, but some were for ceremonial purposes. One complex, at Kilamope, included a 140m (459 ft) by 40m (131 ft) platform. They were built by cutting into hills and creating a platform of earth on top. A network of straight roads and paths connected many of the platforms, including one that extended 25km (16 miles).

Roads, paths and canals were found connecting the platforms suggesting a large area was occupied Photo: STEPHAN ROSTAIN

Dr Dorison said these roads were the most striking part of the research. “The road network is very sophisticated. It extends over a vast distance, everything is connected. And there are right angles, which is very impressive,” he says, explaining that it is much harder to build a straight road than one that fits in with the landscape.

The scientists also identified causeways with ditches on either side which they believe were canals that helped manage the abundant water in the region.

Researchers first found evidence of a city in the 1970s, but this is the first time a comprehensive survey has been completed, after 25 years of research.

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

The archaeologists combined ground excavations with a survey of a 300 square kilometer (116 square mile) area using laser sensors flown on a plane to identify city remains beneath the dense vegetation and trees.

DOI: 10.1126/science.adi6317

Cover Photo: Scientists found evidence of 6,000 mounds thought to be the basis for ancient homes. Photo: STEPHEN ROSTAIN

Related Articles

The enigma behind King Tut’s’space dagger,’ according to archaeologists, has finally been solved

24 February 2022

24 February 2022

Archaeologists have finally solved the enigma of King Tutankhamun’s dagger, which was discovered 3,400 years ago. A new examination of...

Norwegian couple found a Viking Age Grave And Sword in their garden

3 July 2023

3 July 2023

While trying to expand their home, a Norwegian couple found a Viking Age grave and sword in their garden. It’s...

Ritualistic Dog Burials Associated with the Goddess Gula Unearthed at the Harran Archaeological Site in Southeastern Türkiye

15 December 2024

15 December 2024

Excavations at the Harran archaeological site in Şanlıurfa, one of the world’s oldest settlements and listed on UNESCO’s Temporary World...

Scientists Ancient Landscape Not Seen For 14 Million Years Discovered Beneath Antarctic Ice

26 October 2023

26 October 2023

Researchers have uncovered an ancient landscape that remained hidden beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) for at least 14...

Archaeologists have unearthed a flawless Roman blue glass bowl in the Dutch city of Nijmegen

23 January 2022

23 January 2022

Archaeologists excavating the site of a comprehensive housing and green space development in Nijmegen’s Winkelsteeg, one of the oldest cities...

Rare waka unearthed from New Zealand River, after being hidden for 153 years

16 June 2023

16 June 2023

A waka -the traditional canoe of the Maori people- believed to be over 150 years old has been salvaged from...

Serbian Archaeologists Unearth Roman Triumphal Arch Dedicated to Emperor Caracalla

24 January 2024

24 January 2024

Archaeologists in Serbia have unearthed an ancient Roman triumphal arch dating back to the third century at Viminacium, a Roman...

Palau’s green pyramids: could be a geo-archaeological project

19 February 2022

19 February 2022

Archaeologists from Kiel University’s Institute for Ecosystem Research (CAU) and the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) studied the so-called “Pyramids of...

An exciting discovery in Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites

11 September 2022

11 September 2022

It is aimed to reach new information about the traditions of the Hittite civilization with 249 new hieroglyphs discovered in...

In French Necropolis 21 Roman “curse tablets” discovered including one written in the extinct Celtic language of Gaulish

18 January 2025

18 January 2025

During the excavation of an eighteenth-century hospital in north-western France by researchers from the Orléans Archaeological Service, a 2,000-year-old necropolis...

The 7th-Century Lombard Kings’ Tombs Found in Pavia, Italy

24 December 2024

24 December 2024

The excavations, conducted between September and October by the Catholic University, uncovered numerous burials attributed, on the one hand, to...

The Oldest Semicircular Classroom in the Greek World Unearthed in Sicily

21 April 2025

21 April 2025

In a remarkable archaeological breakthrough in southern Sicily, an international team of researchers has uncovered an extraordinary ancient classroom that...

A still life fresco discovered in new excavations of Pompeii Regio IX

28 June 2023

28 June 2023

Archaeologists excavating the ancient city of Pompeii have uncovered a gorgeous still-life fresco depicting a platter covered in food and...

2500-year-old Aphrodite Temple Discovered

4 February 2021

4 February 2021

Archaeologists have discovered a 2500-year-old temple built in the name of Goddess Aphrodite around Çeşme and Urla districts of Izmir...

Tang-e Chogan bas-relief carvings, Majestic treasures of Sassanid art, are under threat of destruction 

9 March 2022

9 March 2022

Treasures of Sassanid art, some of Tang-e Chogan’s bas-reliefs are under threat of complete destruction due to lack of maintenance...