Scientists Find Evidence of Lost Amazonian Civilization That May Have Been Home to Millions
The scientific consensus up until just two decades ago was that there was no evidence any human civilization had ever occupied the Amazon before Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors forever altered life and politics across the South American continent. Incredibly, the researchers extrapolate the approximately 400 confirmed sites to an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 earthwworks across the region. Pärssinen and his colleagues believe these structures are evidence of an interconnected, multicultural civilization that thrived deep within the Amazon between 600 BCE and 850 CE—a population of millions who dramatically altered the rainforest’s ecosystem.
- ▪The scientific consensus up until just two decades ago was that there was no evidence any human civilization had ever occupied the Amazon before Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors forever altered life and politics across the South America
- ▪Incredibly, the researchers extrapolate the approximately 400 confirmed sites to an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 earthwworks across the region.
- ▪Pärssinen and his colleagues believe these structures are evidence of an interconnected, multicultural civilization that thrived deep within the Amazon between 600 BCE and 850 CE—a population of millions who dramatically altered the rainfor
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| Original publisher | Gizmodo |
| Canonical URL | https://gizmodo.com/scientists-find-evidence-of-lost-amazonian-civilization-that-may-have-been-home-to-millions-2000793040 |
| Publication time | Thu, 30 Jul 2026 19:20:52 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-07-30T19:22:27.390Z |
| Last seen | 2026-07-30T19:22:27.390Z |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
The scientific consensus up until just two decades ago was that there was no evidence any human civilization had ever occupied the Amazon before Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors forever altered life and politics across the South American continent. But now new airborne laser scans surveying over 1,737 square miles (about 4,500 square kilometers) of western Brazil’s rainforest have completely rewritten human history in the pre-Columbian…
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