An international team of researchers has completed an extraordinary study that reveals the presence of thousands of undetected earthworks hidden beneath the dense cover of the Amazon rainforest in South America.
Based on their discovery of about two dozen earthworks in the Amazon found during aerial surveys, the researchers estimate that somewhere between 10,000 and 24,000 unknown earthworks must still be waiting to be discovered within the Amazon Basin. It is believed that these earthworks in the Amazon were left there by indigenous peoples who lived in the region before the era of Spanish and Portuguese occupation and colonization.
Cutting-Edge Technology Reveals Earthworks in the Amazon
In a landmark research paper published in Science, the archaeological researchers explained how they reached this stunning conclusion. Hoping to find evidence of at least some undiscovered Amazon earthworks, the researchers analyzed data collected from airborne studies of the Amazon biomass in the northern, central and southern regions of the world’s largest rainforest. This data was intriguing because it was obtained from aerial surveys that used LiDAR laser scanning technology to develop detailed physical maps of the Amazon’s forest floor.
LiDAR is short for “light detection and ranging,” and this scanning-and-imaging technology can use reflected laser light to trace the exact contours of any landscape, even those hidden beneath dense layers of vegetation. LiDAR laser can penetrate a thick forest…
