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

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Volume: 83  Number: 322  Page: 1084–1095

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

Martti Pärssinen1, Denise Schaan2 and Alceu Ranzi3

1Instituto Iberoamericano de Finlandia, c/o General Arrando, 5, bajo izq., 28010 Madrid, Spain (Email: martti.parssinen@madrid.fi) 2Universidade Federal do Pará – IFCH, Rua Augusto Correa, 1, 66075-110 – Belém, Pará, Brazil (Email: denise@marajoara.com) 3Laboratório de Paleontologia, Campus da Universidade Federal do Acre. 69915-000 – Rio Branco, Brazil (Email: alceuranzi@hotmail.com)

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: Amazonia, pre-Columbian, Acre River, Purús River, Andes, monumentality, earthworks, geoglyphs

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