Satellite technology turns up an honest-to-goodness lost civilization in the Amazon region:
"This hitherto unknown people constructed earthworks of precise geometric plan connected by straight orthogonal roads. The 'geoglyph culture' stretches over a region more than 250km across, and exploits both the floodplains and the uplands … we have so far seen no more than a tenth of it."
The structures were created by a network of trenches about 36ft (nearly 11 metres) wide and several feet deep, lined by banks up to 3ft high. Some were ringed by low mounds containing ceramics, charcoal and stone tools. It is thought they were used for fortifications, homes and ceremonies, and could have maintained a population of 60,000 – more people than in many medieval European cities.
The discoveries have demolished ideas that soils in the upper Amazon were too poor to support extensive agriculture, says Denise Schaan, a co-author of the study and anthropologist at the Federal University of Pará, in Belém, Brazil. She told National Geographic: "We found this picture is wrong. And there is a lot more to discover in these places, it's never-ending. Every week we find new structures."
On the other hand, we can't call them the abovementioned, since alpacas live in the mountains, not the Amazon basin. Maybe they herded ilks instead. Or they might be the infamous Quagaar warriors. The article raises an interesting idea: have these scientists found El Dorado? (I've actually driven through El Dorado about 200 times, it turns out.)
BREAKING:
For a little comic relief–
Wedding photographer captures a touching moment.
