[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/lidar1.jpeg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tSurveys of the Brazilian states of Acre and Amazonas turned up evidence of pre-Colombian civilization that thrived in southwestern Amazonia.<\/p>\n
\n\tAs reported by Heritage Daily<\/em>, the new findings\u2014published in the journal Nature<\/em>\u2014include signs of hundreds of earthworks that had not previously been identified. \u201cThe team conducted more than 4,400 kilometers of airborne LiDAR surveys over the Brazilian states of Acre and Amazonas. The laser-based technology, which can penetrate dense forest canopy, identified 432 earthworks, only 36 of which had previously been recorded,\u201d Heritage Daily<\/em> wrote.<\/p>\n \n\tThe new findings, including evidence of geometric ditched enclosures, embankments, and ceremonial complexes dating as far back as 600 BCE, challenge notions that the pre-Columbian Amazon was sparsely populated. The surveyed area is thought to have been home to as many as 3 million people during its peak between the years 100 and 300.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe findings add to growing evidence that pre-Columbian Amazonia was home to complex societies that actively engineered their environment through agriculture, landscape management and large-scale monument construction, not a wilderness as such,\u201d according to Heritage Daily<\/em>. \u201cThe study also shows that these communities planted crops like maize, squash, manioc, beans and peanuts and managed economically important tree species like Brazil nut and peach palm. These long-term land use practices may have contributed to the formation and biodiversity of the modern Amazon rainforest.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/brazil-survey-pre-colombian-civilization-1234793989\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/lidar1.jpeg?w=1024″] Surveys of the Brazilian states of Acre and Amazonas turned up evidence of pre-Colombian civilization that thrived in southwestern Amazonia. As reported by Heritage Daily, the new findings\u2014published in the journal Nature\u2014include signs of hundreds of earthworks that had not previously been identified. \u201cThe team conducted more than 4,400 kilometers of airborne […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2070951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2070951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2070951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2070951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2070951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2070951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}