Overview
- Researchers published LiDAR results on Monday after scanning roughly 4,500 km² of southwest Amazon forest and detected 432 earthwork structures, 396 of which were previously unknown.
- The team used airborne LiDAR to pierce the forest canopy and map large geometric geoglyphs made of ditches and embankments that are visible only from the air.
- Authors link many sites to a proposed Aquiry network dated about 600 BCE–850 CE and, using remote‑sensing models, estimate 24,000–30,000 similar constructions regionally and a peak population of about 1.25–3 million.
- External specialists stress that those regional and population figures rely on model extrapolation and must be tested by targeted excavations, radiocarbon dating, and paleoenvironmental studies to confirm function and age.
- Archaeologists warn that deforestation and crop expansion are destroying or exposing sites now, creating a narrow window to record, study, and protect the newly revealed archaeological landscape.