Atlantis Online
March 28, 2024, 11:20:55 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Update About Cuba Underwater Megalithic Research
http://www.timstouse.com/EarthHistory/Atlantis/bimini.htm
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

"Pristine" Amazonian Region Hosted Large, Urban Civilization - UPDATES

Pages: 1 [2]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: "Pristine" Amazonian Region Hosted Large, Urban Civilization - UPDATES  (Read 2486 times)
0 Members and 75 Guests are viewing this topic.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #15 on: May 12, 2009, 09:29:54 am »

Dara Meloy
Sr. Member

Posts: 80



    Re: Ancient Amazon Cities Found; Were Vast Urban Network
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2008, 11:06:20 pm » Quote 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




                                            Amazon hides an ancient urban landscape







11:22 29 August 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Catherine Brahic

 It could be a case of history repeating itself in the jungles of South America. Huge swathes of the Western Amazon were cleared 600 years ago, though back then it wasn't for logging, it was to make way for an urban network of towns, villages and hamlets.

For the past few decades archaeologists have been uncovering urban remains that date back to the 13th century – long before European settlers had sailed across the Atlantic and discovered the "New World".

This means that decent chunks – some 20,000 square kilometres – of the Western Amazon forest is not, strictly speaking, what could be called "virgin" forest. It is what took over after local cultures were wiped out by European settlers and imported diseases and their towns and villages were left untended.

"In 1993, I went to live with the Kuikuro people," says Michael Heckenberger of the University of Florida. "After a few days, the village chief, Afukaka Kuikuro, took me out to the remains of an earthen wall."

Heckenberger soon realised that the structures which the Kuikuro held to be associated with their gods were, in fact, the remains of their ancestors' cities. He now returns to the area every year with a team of Brazilian and US colleagues to trace the extent of the pre-European settlements with a GPS transmitter in hand.





Town planning


What has emerged from this work is a digital map of two complex and dense urban clusters, right in the heart of the jungle. The clusters are connected by roads and each has a distinct central element. In one case this is a ceremonial plaza; in the other a residential plaza.

The next largest residential centres are 3 to 5 kilometres to the south-east and north-west of each centre; slightly smaller centres are between 8 km and 10 km from the centres, to the south-west and north-east.

Each of these "towns" had its own central plaza and was protected by an earthen wall. They were surrounded by smaller, non-walled residential hamlets.

The towns, villages and hamlets were interlinked by roads, the largest of which followed the direction of the sun at the mid-year solstice.





Return of the forest


Although the team have looked at the detail of just two of these urban clusters, they have found evidence of another 13, covering a total area of more than 20,000 square kilometres – equivalent to the size of New Jersey or Wales.

The researchers estimate the population of each village and town would have been between 250 and 2500, and all 15 clusters could have been home to more than 50,000 people.

What happened to these towns? Some modern Kuikuro villages still stand on original sites, and in these villages the primary, or high-ranking, houses lie south-east and north-west of the central plaza – a similar pattern to the ancient orientation.

It is likely that when European colonisers arrived in South America in the early 16th century, the indigenous population was decimated and urban clusters were abandoned.

Unlike ancient Andean civilisations, the Kuikuro and other indigenous peoples from the Amazon had little stone close at hand. They built with earth and, once they were gone, the forest reclaimed the land, leaving little trace of the once considerable urbanisation.





Altered landscape


The findings raise big questions, says Susanna Hecht of the University of California in Los Angeles.

For starters, it forces a rethink of the long-held assumption that these parts of the Amazon were virtually empty before colonisation. What's more, it shows that the large populations that did inhabit the region transformed the landscape.

"What we find is that what we think of as the primitive Amazon forest is not so primitive after all," Heckenberger told New Scientist. "European colonialism wasted huge numbers of native peoples and cleared them off the land, so that the forest returned."

What, then, did the primitive Amazon look like? That is a mystery, says Heckenberger. It is clear, though, that these large urban clusters reordered the entire landscape.

Research published in January revealed that was has long been thought of as the "original" New England landscape was in fact created by British settlers in the 17th century.



Journal reference: Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1159769)


http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn14624-amazon-hides-an-ancient-urban-landscape.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news2_head_dn14624
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #16 on: May 12, 2009, 09:31:00 am »



Larger towns and villages were surrounded by a ditch, such as this one which is being excavated

(Image:
Science/AAAS)
« Last Edit: May 12, 2009, 09:32:00 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #17 on: May 12, 2009, 09:34:50 am »








                                                   'Lost towns' discovered in Amazon 








BBC NEWS
Sept. 6, 2008





The settlements show an advanced level of planning


A remote area of the Amazon river basin was once home to densely populated towns, Science journal reports.

The Upper Xingu, in west Brazil, was once thought to be virgin forest, but in fact shows traces of extensive human activity.

Researchers found evidence of a grid-like pattern of settlements connected by road networks and arranged around large central plazas.

There are signs of farming, wetland management, and possibly fish farms.

The settlements are now almost completely overgrown by rainforest.

The ancient urban communities date back to before the first Europeans set foot in the Upper Xingu region of the Brazilian Amazon in the 15th Century.
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #18 on: May 12, 2009, 09:35:45 am »


       








Urban planning


 
Professor Mike Heckenberger, from the University of Florida, in Gainesville, said: "These are not cities, but this is urbanism, built around towns."

"They have quite remarkable planning and self-organisation, more so than many classical examples of what people would call urbanism," he said. Although the remains are almost invisible, they can be identified by members of the Kuikuro tribe, who are thought to be direct descendents of the people who built the towns.

The tell-tale traces included "dark earth" that indicated past human waste dumps or farming, and concentrations of pottery shards and earthworks.

The researchers also made use of satellite images and GPS navigation to uncover and map the settlements over the course of a decade.

The communities consisted of clusters of 60-hectare (150-acre) towns and smaller villages spread out over the rainforest.
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #19 on: May 12, 2009, 09:36:45 am »








Road network



Like medieval European and ancient Greek towns, those forming the Amazonian urban landscape were surrounded by large walls. These were composed of earthworks, the remains of which have survived.

 


In modern settlements,
dams are used to funnel fish into weirs


Each community had an identical road, always pointing north-east to south-west, which are connected to a central plaza.

The roads were always oriented this way in keeping with the mid-year summer solstice.

Evidence was found of dams and artificial ponds - thought to have been used for fish farming - as well as open areas and large compost heaps.

The people who once lived in the settlements are thought to have been wiped out by European colonists and the diseases they brought with them.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7586860.stm
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #20 on: May 12, 2009, 09:39:00 am »


               

               Houses built by Indians from Peru were found three miles within
               the Brazilian border.

               Illegal logging is displacing uncontacted tribes in Peru and forcing
               them into Brazil, conservation groups say.

               Photography by
               Gleison Miranda/FUNAI








                                         "Uncontacted" Tribes Fled Peru Logging, Arrows Suggest





Sabrina Valle
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
for National Geographic News
October 6, 2008

Arrows and abandoned camps found in remote western Brazil are fresh evidence of isolated Amazon tribes fleeing Peru to escape the encroachment of illegal loggers, indigenous rights groups say.

London-based Survival International said the arrows were recovered by Brazilian authorities near a site where photos were taken earlier this year of tribal people apparently shooting arrows at the photographer's airplane.

The tribes have been described as "uncontacted"—so remote that they may have had little or no substantive contact with the developed world.

Peruvian President Alan Garcia suggested last year that such indigenous groups might be an invention by those who were opposed to oil exploration.

Conservationists, scholars, and Brazilian government agencies that do recognize the isolated tribes have struggled to determine how best to protect them, an effort that has spurred calls for Peru to stop the illegal logging and development that is displacing the indigenous people
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #21 on: May 12, 2009, 09:40:05 am »










A Different Kind of Arrow



"There is plenty of evidence for the tribes fleeing and that logging is taking place on the Peruvian side," said David Hill of Survival International.

Logs cut down illegally in Peru have been reported floating downriver to Brazil, and abandoned Indian huts have been found between areas of deforestation.

Brazil's Indian-protection agency, FUNAI, has found traces of fires and footprints at campsites on its side of the border with Peru, as well as newly built houses and the arrows three miles (five kilometers) from the border.

"These houses cannot have been built by anyone else, and the arrows they are using differ from the ones used by 'uncontacted' groups permanently on the Brazilian side of the border," Hill said.

"FUNAI officials have monitored the area for years. They know the lay of the land—who is who, where they are," he said.
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #22 on: May 12, 2009, 09:41:22 am »









Reports of "Contact"



Reports from less isolated tribes who have met the "uncontacted" groups also attest to the dislocation.

Beatriz Huertas, a top official with CIPIACI, an international committee comprised of indigenous organizations from six South American countries, was among a small group of specialists that spent nearly three weeks in the area researching and documenting the displacement.

"We haven't made direct contact, since we have to respect them and take care not to spread diseases they are not protected from, but we've flown over the area and spoken to other tribes from the region who have had first-hand contact," Huertas said.

"There is no doubt," she continued. "It is proven that they are fleeing."

Huertas said the "uncontacted" tribes affected by the illegal logging activities are probably from the Peruvian region of Ucayali, which borders the Brazilian state of Acre.

She said the indigenous people are believed to be either Pano speakers or else from the Mashco Piro ethnic group, whose language derives from Arawak.

Sydney Possuelo, who was responsible for implementing Brazil's policies protecting Indians in the late 1980s, stressed that such details of the "uncontacted" tribes are not known for certain.

"We know the location of some, and there are reserves to protect them. But everything about their language, culture, and habits has to be treated as supposition," he said.
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #23 on: May 12, 2009, 09:42:23 am »









Infighting and Inaction



The Brazilian government has confirmed the existence of 40 such tribes, and there are estimates that the number could be as high as 67. Another 15 live in Peru, according to Survival International.

Huertas said logging pressure has also caused other problems for the Indians. Tribes that used to live far from each other are being pushed closer together, forcing them to fight among themselves for food and territory.

"There have been attacks, fires, and killings by loggers. The area available to the tribes has shrunk. Now they have to compete for food and space," Huertas said.

While there are problems in the Brazilian side, Indians are more protected by the government than they are in Peru.

No report has been published and no action has been taken since the Peruvian government promised earlier this year to investigate the logging problem, Hill said.

"Either because [Peru] does not have the political will, or because it does not want to allocate the necessary resources to tackle the problem, these 'uncontacted' tribes' lands are being invaded and devastated," he said.



http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081006-uncontacted-tribes.html?source=rss
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #24 on: May 12, 2009, 09:43:36 am »









                                                   B A C K G R O U N D   S T O R Y





             





Photos Spur Debate on Protecting "Uncontacted" Tribes 

A handout photo from the Brazilian government shows members of an "uncontacted" Amazon tribe spotted during
a flight over the state of Acre near the border with Peru. (See a photo of the tribe firing arrows at a plane.)

This and related images released in late May 2008 have sparked a lively debate over how best to protect isolated indigenous tribes.



Photograph by
Reuters/Ho New
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #25 on: May 12, 2009, 09:44:33 am »










                                 Photos Spur Debate on Protecting "Uncontacted" Tribes






Kelly Hearn
for National Geographic News
June 3, 2008

New photos of an "uncontacted" Amazonian tribe and aerial video of their camp (watch below) have intensified the longstanding debate over how such tribes are labeled and what strategies to employ to protect them from developers.

Among the key questions: Should these people be contacted? And are they truly uncontacted in the first place?

The photos, released last week by the Indian affairs agency of the Brazilian government, or FUNAI, show several Amazon natives in loincloths firing arrows at a passing aircraft from near palm huts. (See the new photos.)

A statement by Survival International, a tribal-rights group, quoted Jos Carlos dos Reis Meirelles of FUNAI as saying the photo was taken to "show they are there, to show they exist."

The group's statement referred to comments made last year by Peruvian President Alan Garcia, as well as top officials at the country's oil agency, PeruPetro, casting doubts on the existence of the uncontacted native groups. (PeruPetro did not respond to interview requests for this story.)



In response to the photos, an umbrella group of native rights organizations in South America called CIPIACI on May 30 asked Peruvian authorities to stop native displacement, which it said is caused largely by illegal logging and evangelists.

Ronald Ibarra Gonzales, an official with Peru's agency for indigenous peoples, DGPOA, told the newspaper El Comercio the same day that officials are mobilizing to investigate the matter.

"A professional team will go to the place to gather information and determine if illegal logging has displaced this community," Ibarra said. 
Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Pages: 1 [2]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy