MANAUS, Brazil — For centuries, the dense rainforests of the Amazon were remembered in mainstream history as vast, untamed wildernesses—impenetrable green expanses largely untouched by large-scale ancient civilization. But a landmark survey published this week by an international consortium of archaeologists and environmental scientists has shattered that myth for good. Using high-resolution light-detection scanning technology flown over thousands of square miles of dense forest, researchers have unveiled a vast, hidden network of pre-Columbian urban settlements that rivaled the complexity of ancient Mediterranean cities.
The breakthrough focuses on the Upper Amazon basin, spanning the border regions of modern-day Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. Where previous explorers saw only continuous, unbroken foliage, laser pulses capable of peering straight
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