Okay, this one I'll give them, about even top-flight professionals falsely believing in the primitive, pristine, barely technologically survivable except for living in an incredibly rich environment tribes, in the Amazon all these millennia. The Lost Empire of Upano was undreamed of when I studied anthropology in the 70s. Still lost, I guess. The evidence for Other Things happening in the deepest, most upper Amazon is becoming overwhelming, but even 20 years ago was resisted. Probably mostly by "male archaeologists" who still fancied that they were really cavemen at heart, but still, those guys had all the power, right?
Using Lidar technology, the team uncovered a sprawling urban landscape, challenging the conventional image of the Amazon as a pristine wilderness. More than 6,000 rectangular earthen platforms, homes, and ceremonial sites hinted at a sophisticated society that predates any other known Amazonian complex by over a millennium.
6000 is a big number.
And BTW, "The Lost Cities of Upano" sounds like a great show-stopper of a place to say you are going to visit.
2 comments:
"falsely believing in the primitive, pristine, barely technologically survivable"
To be fair, that was what was before the scholars' eyes, and it had been so for centuries. The Amazonian ancient relics were and are hard to see.
And the overwhelming loss--technology, history, culture--would be hard to fathom. Babylon fell, but left relics and some traditions and history, and the inhabitants of the land, though they'd forgotten Babylon, were still much more technologically advanced than the Amazonians. We've better "eyes" these days, and a rich tradition of apocalyptic sci-fi with which to imagine obliteration of civilizations.
Babylon's location in a desert probably made a significant difference.
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