Transcribed
The Amazon Was Never Empty
Aug 24, 2026 ·
13m
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The Amazon Was Never Empty
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Description
For generations, one influential picture of the ancient Amazon imagined a vast rainforest that could support only small and scattered human populations. Then geometric earthworks began appearing where forest was...
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For generations, one influential picture of the ancient Amazon imagined a vast rainforest that could support only small and scattered human populations. Then geometric earthworks began appearing where forest was cleared. Squares, circles, roads, embankments, and enormous ditches revealed that people had transformed parts of the landscape on a scale few expected.
A major new LiDAR survey has now found hundreds more structures beneath the canopy and suggests that one cultural region in southwestern Amazonia alone may contain tens of thousands of earthworks. The discovery raises a much larger question. How many people once lived in the forest, and how much of the Amazon we see today was shaped by them?
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A major new LiDAR survey has now found hundreds more structures beneath the canopy and suggests that one cultural region in southwestern Amazonia alone may contain tens of thousands of earthworks. The discovery raises a much larger question. How many people once lived in the forest, and how much of the Amazon we see today was shaped by them?
Information
| Author | Colt Shepherd |
| Organization | Colt Shepherd |
| Website | - |
| Tags |
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