Dave5

Archaeologists have known for some time that ancient pre-Hispanic settlements likely lay hidden deep within the Amazon. However, the dense rainforest has made the discovery of these ancient cultures and their artifacts particularly difficult. In fact, the release announcing this latest discovery openly concedes that although an expanding body of research has begun to shed light on the scope and scale of pre-Hispanic occupation of the Amazon, “evidence for large-scale urbanism has remained elusive.”

Now, research scientist Stéphen Rostain from the Archaeology of Americas and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and his colleagues say they have discovered conclusive and expansive evidence for an agrarian-based civilization that started at least 2,500 years ago in the Upano Valley of Amazonian Ecuador, a region in the eastern foothills of the Andes.