'The rock art gave me goosebumps': discovering the Amazon's lost archaeology

[Judi Lynn]

Archaeologist and palaeoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi explains the significance of new discoveries in the rainforest

By Olivia Gavoyannis
November 26, 2020 8:06 pm
Updated November 27, 2020 5:13 pm



In Jungle Mystery, Ella Al-Shamahi explores the archaeology of the Amazon

Looking down from a helicopter on its dense carpet of trees, it’s easy to imagine that the Amazon rainforest has always been like this – wild and untameable. Historians always assumed that little more than a handful of small, nomadic tribes ever lived in this extraordinary environment.

But laser technology has been helping archaeologists search beneath the trees on airborne expeditions in Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia. They have uncovered the remains of ancient settlements from 2,000 years ago, which can then be examined on the ground.



The dense tropical forest of the Amazon has meant that many of its historic secrets have remained hidden (Photo: Getty)

Among those amazed by the new discoveries is British archaeologist and palaeoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi. When she trekked into the forest, she was astonished to find giant geometric shapes carved into the landscape, ditches and roads that reveal a lost jungle metropolis, cultivated Brazil nut trees and what is now thought to be South America’s largest site of prehistoric artworks, with hundreds of intricate paintings.

. . .

Telling another side of history
Archaeology is shedding new light on the tribes’ oral histories of their once vast civilisations. “The idea that this story of the Amazon is not the story that we think it is blew my mind,” Al-Shamahi tells i. “History is often told by a group of people and we don’t necessarily listen to indigenous voices.

“We were able to show that some of their stories really line up. One indigenous group had stories of really large settlements, and when the archaeologists started looking… they found the same small settlements they live in now – but sprawled in a much larger landscape”.

More:
https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/jungle-mystery-lost-kingdoms-of-the-amazon-interview-ella-al-shamahi-archaeology-773932?ITO=newsnow