Lasers reveal hundreds of geoglyphs made by a mysterious civilization in the Amazon rainforest thousands of years ago

Live Science plus Get started to get free access to selected news stories, receive our daily newsletter, post comments, play games and earn badges. JOIN FREE Live Science pro Unlimited access to our exclusive features, expert analysis and in-depth interviews, all ad-free No ads, ever Exclusive, original reporting Scientist interviews and video Member-only features Join live science pro Archaeologists discovered ancient geoglyphs like this square-shaped one in Acre, Brazil. (Image credit: Martti Pärssinen) Copy link Facebook X Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Using laser scanning technology to peer beneath the dense canopy of the Amazon rainforest, archaeologists have discovered hundreds of ancient earthworks that were made by a complex, enigmatic society over two millennia ago, a new study finds.

This ancient civilization, called the Aquiry, arose 2,500 years ago in Brazil. Based on the large number of earthworks, called geoglyphs, the Aquiry may have had 3 million people before the society collapsed, the researchers suggested in the study."The cultures and societies that composed the Aquiry shared a common worldview and constructed ceremonial centers in a variety of monumental geometric forms, characterized by deep ditches and high outer embankments, commonly known as Amazonian geoglyphs," Martti Pärssinen, an archaeologist at the University of Helsinki, told Live Science in an email.

Latest Videos FromLive ScienceWatch full video here: In the new study, published Wednesday (July 29) in the journal Nature, Pärssinen and co-authors presented findings from their survey of nearly 1,740 square miles (4,500 square kilometers) of Amazonian rainforest, which revealed 396 new geoglyphs and allowed them to approximate the geographical extent of the Aquiry civilization.Pärssinen has been investigating geometric earthworks in Brazil's Acre state for more than two decades. In a 2021 study, he officially introduced the name Aquiry for the multicultural ancient civilization, named after the Acre River, which flows from Peru and Bolivia through the present-day states of Acre and Amazonas in Brazil.

Aquiry means "river of caimans" in the language spoken by the Indigenous Arawakan people.Because of the dense canopy of trees in the rainforest, archaeological investigation in the area has been limited. Most of the evidence for the Aquiry civilization comes from lidar and airborne laser scanning of monumental geoglyphs that were constructed between 600 B.

C. and A.D.

850, according to the study. People lived in multifamily longhouses around the earthworks, and they farmed crops like maize and squash."According to native oral traditions, the Aquiry centers were built to foster relations among communities" and with significant otherworldly beings, Pärssinen said.

These centers also served as venues for gatherings and political decision-making, and they enabled chiefs to display their generosity, he added.Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter nowGet the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsTo date, archaeologists have identified around 1,700 known geoglyphs in the area.

But the researchers think the total is significantly higher, with more than 20,000 Aquiry earthworks waiting to be found in places that haven't yet been surveyed. And based on an estimate of 300 people needed to build and maintain each geoglyph on average, the researchers estimated that the Aquiry civilization likely peaked at 1.25 million to 3 million people between A.

D. 100 and 300.Similar geoglyphs dating to between 200 B.

C. and A.D.

500 have been found in Peru. Known as the Nazca Lines, these earthworks are shaped like animals, humans, plants and fantastical figures, in addition to having geometric motifs. The Nazca were an interconnected regional society of precolonial farmers who were able to survive in a forbidding geographic region, but they lived roughly 1,050 miles (1,700 kilometers) from the Aquiry.

RELATED STORIESStunning images of the mysterious Nazca Lines in PeruSome of the oldest harpoons ever found reveal Indigenous people in Brazil were hunting whales 5,000 years agoStunning rock art site reveals that humans settled the Colombian Amazon 13,000 years ago"The Nazca geoglyphs represent a different phenomenon and were probably unrelated to the Aquiry civilization," Pärssinen said. "Nevertheless, in both cases, the straight roads and lines, as well as the geometric forms and motifs, are best appreciated from the air."The presence of thousands of geoglyphs in the southwest Amazon region is leading archaeologists to rethink assumptions about precolonial civilizations and urban development — but it's also bringing up questions about the fate of the Aquiry."

We do not know wh