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Pre-Columbian geometric earthworks in the upper Purús: a complex society in western Amazonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Martti Pärssinen ,
Denise Schaan  and
Alceu Ranzi
Martti Pärssinen
Affiliation:
Instituto Iberoamericano de Finlandia, c/o General Arrando, 5, bajo izq., 28010 Madrid, Spain (Email: martti.parssinen@madrid.fi)
Denise Schaan
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal do Pará – IFCH, Rua Augusto Correa, 1, 66075-110 – Belém, Pará, Brazil (Email: denise@marajoara.com)
Alceu Ranzi
Affiliation:
Laboratório de Paleontologia, Campus da Universidade Federal do Acre. 69915-000 – Rio Branco, Brazil (Email: alceuranzi@hotmail.com)
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Abstract

It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. The combination of land cleared of its rainforest for grazing and satellite survey have revealed a sophisticated pre-Columbian monument-building society in the upper Amazon Basin on the east side of the Andes. This hitherto unknown people constructed earthworks of precise geometric plan connected by straight orthogonal roads. Introducing us to this new civilisation, the authors show that the ‘geoglyph culture’ stretches over a region more than 250km across, and exploits both the floodplains and the uplands. They also suggest that we have so far seen no more than a tenth of it.

Keywords

Amazoniapre-ColumbianAcre RiverPurús RiverAndesmonumentalityearthworksgeoglyphs
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 83 , Issue 322 , December 2009 , pp. 1084 - 1095
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2009

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