"Lost" Amazon Complex Found

roadrunner

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Posts: 1796

"Lost" Amazon Complex Found

« on: January 16, 2010, 05:14:12 AM »

Hundreds of circles, squares, and other geometric shapes once hidden by forest hint at a previously unknown ancient society that flourished in the Amazon, a new study says.

Satellite images of the upper Amazon Basin taken since 1999 have revealed more than 200 geometric earthworks spanning a distance greater than 155 miles (250 kilometers).

At least one of the sites has been dated to around A.D. 1283, although others may date as far back as A.D. 200 to 300, said study co-author Denise Schaan, an anthropologist at the Federal University of Pará in Belém, Brazil.

The newfound shapes are created by a series of trenches about 36 feet (11 meters) wide and several feet deep, with adjacent banks up to 3 feet (1 meter) tall. Straight roads connect many of the earthworks.

Preliminary excavations at one of the sites in 2008 revealed that some of the earthworks were surrounded by low mounds containing domestic ceramics, charcoal, grinding-stone fragments, and other evidence of habitation.

But who built the structures and what functions they served remains a mystery. Ideas range from defensive buildings to ceremonial centers and homes, the study authors say.


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Bluehorse

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Posts: 106

Re: "Lost" Amazon Complex Found

« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2010, 04:43:33 PM »

Evidently Brad Pitt is scheduled to play the role of Colonel Fawcett, who went in search of lost cities in the Amazonias back in the day of intrepid archeology. It should be a fun film with Pitt as the recycled Indiana Jones.
My guess is that these trenches were fish farms and agricultural carrals which supported a very complex diet for one of the tastiest cusines on the planet. It is and was one of the most diverse eco-regions on the planet...
If I were going to build an eco-farm that is precisely how I'd do it, especially in the middle of a jungle. It was a laborious task to detoxify the staple of manioc, and that would have been of central concern. I believe plants were cultivated in the enclosures which had great variety of purposes, everything from medicinal and aphrodasiac to halucinogengenic. It was and still is an herbal paradise with more flavours than Robbin's...
I wanted to introduce some of them into the Blue Iguana ... not a very adventurous culinary bunch around here in beefland though.
It is likely that what destroyed these cultures were kinship rules because they sure didn't experience famine. I think there is lost culture there of enormous significance medicinally. One has to ask: how did they formulate something like yaga without killing themselves...it's a bit of a chemical mystery.
The area of the Amazon basin is roughly speaking about the same as the area of the entire US.
As to what types of fish they may have farmed I'd think the catfish is most likely. That's my theory. Goofy...maybe.


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roadrunner

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Posts: 1796

Re: "Lost" Amazon Complex Found

« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2010, 01:29:52 AM »

The idea that they could have been fish farms is interesting. Did you notice the two parallel ridges inside the larger circle/polygon shape?

You know, petroglyphs of turtles are not that uncommon, and this does have a vague resemblance to some of them.