by Cockney Robin | In an area of the upper Xingu in Brazil, in an area once believed to be "virgin forest", anthropologists from the University of Florida have discovered the traces of an Amazon civilisation that predated European explorers. (BBCNews 30-8-08)
Professor Michael Heckenberger from the University of Florida, in Gainesville, said:
"These are not cities, but this is urbanism, built around towns."
"They have quite remarkable planning and self-organisation, more so than many classical examples of what people would call urbanism," he said. Although the remains are almost invisible, they can be identified by members of the Kuikuro tribe, who are thought to be direct descendents of the people who built the towns. (BBCNews 30-8-08: more)
Teamed with the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Heckenberger worked with indigenous chiefs from the region. (Reuters 2003)
"Every 3 km to 5 km there is another village or town," he said. "Some of these villages are 50 hectares in size ... maybe 150 or so acres in total size," he added.
"In the villages sometimes the roads are 50 m wide. Why 50 m? There were no wheeled vehicles. They were not having car races up and down these things and certainly you were not moving Incan armies."
Heckenberger believes the wide boulevards and plazas were the early Xinguano society's version of monuments - akin to the pyramids of the Maya: "Clearly it is an aesthetic thing," he said. "It speaks of very sophisticated astronomical knowledge and mathematical knowledge and the kind of things that we associate with pyramids. It is a different human alternative to social complexity."(Reuters 2003)
The details are fascinating for what they reveal about the life of the vanished builders.
Like medieval European and ancient Greek towns, those forming the Amazonian urban landscape were surrounded by large walls. These were composed of earthworks, the remains of which have survived.
Each community had an identical road, always pointing north-east to south-west, which are connected to a central plaza.
The roads were always oriented this way in keeping with the mid-year summer solstice.
Evidence was found of dams and artificial ponds - thought to have been used for fish farming - as well as open areas and large compost heaps. (BBC News 30-8-08; more)
They are also fascinating for what they show us about alternative---and perhaps more environmentally sound---methods of agriculture.(Reuters 2003)
The builders are thought to have died as a result of diseases such as measles and smallpox brought by European colonists. (Reuters 2003)
RECENT POSTINGS
Comments