More than 10,000 pre-Columbian earthworks are still hidden throughout Amazonia

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W., Laurance, William F., Torres-Lezama, Armando, Assis, Rafael L., Molino, Jean-François, Mestre, Mickaël, Hamblin, Michelle, Coelho, Luiz De Souza, Lima Filho, Diogenes De Andrade, Wittmann, Florian, Salomão, Rafael P., Amaral, Iêda Leão, Guevara, Juan Ernesto, de Almeida Matos, Francisca Dionízia, Castilho, Carolina V., Carim, Marcelo De Jesus Veiga, Cárdenas López, Dairon, Sabatier, Daniel, Irume, Mariana Victória, Martins, Maria Pires, da Silva Guimarães, José Renan, Bánki, Olaf S., Piedade, Maria Teresa Fernandez, Ramos, José Ferreira, Luize, Bruno Garcia, de Leão Novo, Evlyn Márcia Moraes, Núñez Vargas, Percy, Silva, Thiago Sanna Freire, Venticinque, Eduardo Martins, Manzatto, Angelo Gilberto, Reis, Neidiane Farias Costa, Terborgh, John, Casula, Katia Regina, Demarchi, Layon O., Honorio Coronado, Euridice N., Monteagudo Mendoza, Abel, Montero, Juan Carlos, Schöngart, Jochen, Feldpausch, Ted R., Quaresma, Adriano Costa, Aymard C., Gerardo A., Baraloto, Chris, Castaño Arboleda, Nicolás, Engel, Julien, Petronelli, Pascal, Zartman, Charles Eugene, Killeen, Timothy J., Marimon, Beatriz S., Marimon-Junior, Ben Hur, Schietti, Juliana, Sousa, Thaiane R., Vasquez, Rodolfo, Rincón, Lorena M., Berenguer, Erika, Ferreira, Joice, Mostacedo, Bonifacio, do Amaral, Dário Dantas, Castellanos, Hernán, de Medeiros, Marcelo Brilhante, Andrade, Ana, Camargo, José Luís, Farias, Emanuelle de Sousa, Magalhães, José Leonardo Lima, Mendonça Nascimento, Henrique Eduardo, de Queiroz, Helder Lima, Brienen, Roel, Cardenas Revilla, Juan David, Stevenson, Pablo R., Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro, Barçante Ladvocat Cintra, Bruno, Feitosa, Yuri Oliveira, Barbosa, Flávia Rodrigues, de Sá Carpanedo, Rainiellen, Duivenvoorden, Joost F., de Noronha, Janaína da Costa, Rodrigues, Domingos de Jesus, Mogollón, Hugo F., Ferreira, Leandro Valle, Householder, John Ethan, Lozada, José Rafael, Comiskey, James A., Draper, Freddie C., de Toledo, José Julio, Damasco, Gabriel, Dávila, Nállarett, García-Villacorta, Roosevelt, Lopes, Aline, Cornejo Valverde, Fernando, Alonso, Alfonso, Dallmeier, Francisco, Gomes, Vitor H. 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(2023) More than 10,000 pre-Columbian earthworks are still hidden throughout Amazonia. Science, 382 (6666). pp. 103-109. ISSN 0036-8075

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Abstract

Indigenous societies are known to have occupied the Amazon basin for more than 12,000 years, but the scale of their influence on Amazonian forests remains uncertain. We report the discovery, using LIDAR (light detection and ranging) information from across the basin, of 24 previously undetected pre-Columbian earthworks beneath the forest canopy. Modeled distribution and abundance of large-scale archaeological sites across Amazonia suggest that between 10,272 and 23,648 sites remain to be discovered and that most will be found in the southwest. We also identified 53 domesticated tree species significantly associated with earthwork occurrence probability, likely suggesting past management practices. Closed-canopy forests across Amazonia are likely to contain thousands of undiscovered archaeological sites around which pre-Columbian societies actively modified forests, a discovery that opens opportunities for better understanding the magnitude of ancient human influence on Amazonia and its current state.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data and materials availability: Data from publicly available sources are cited in the supplementary materials. Other data and computer codes used in the analysis are publicly available in Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7750985).
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Biology
Related URLs:	https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scie...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	20 Dec 2024 01:13
Last Modified:	20 Dec 2024 01:13
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98044
DOI:	10.1126/science.ade2541

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