A number of ancient settlement sites were recently discovered in the Amazon’s Upper Tapajós Basin. This is no El Dorado – although you’d be forgiven for thinking so. The press coverage demonstrates a fixation on the idea that the tropical New World may once have been the site of monumental societies, such as those in Egypt or Mesopotamia. The recent discoveries were heralded by Newsweek as “rewriting” the history of the Americas before Columbus: not a modest claim. The Guardian proclaimed: “Lost Amazon villages uncovered by archaeologists.”
Meanwhile, the National Geographic (partly responsible for the funding of the project) announced that the “Amazon jungle was once home to millions more than previously thought”. This is far from the idea of a pristine landscape that conservationists have been alluding to for years. As one of the Exeter researchers noted to the Washington Post: “It seems that it was a mosaic of cultures.”
