Lost Towns of the Xingu

Human culture and civilization is markedly resilient, and we've been able to spread to practically every corner of the globe, putting us up there with rats and cockroaches on the survivability scale of things. What is so amazing, of course, is how modern day researchers have really just scratched the surface of the whole history of human societies and migrations, often finding evidence for human habitation in surprising places.

Resent work from the University of Florida has shown that, in the area of the Upper Xingu in the Amazon Basin (in Brazil), humans had created elaborate urban settlements in the heart of the modern day rain forest. These urban centers were laid out in grid-like patterns, centered around large plazas, and connected by extensive roadways. A summary of the recent find is available at the BBC Science headline site.

The researchers used satellite imagery and good ol' fashioned field work (identifying pottery shards and "black earth", where farming or waste dumping occurred) to identify the settlements. Evidence for dams and extensive earthworks were also found. Additionally, and most importantly, the ruins were identified by the Kuikoro tribe, were are believed to be descendants of the Xingu settlement folks.

The Upper Xingu people are believed to have been wiped out by European diseases brought by colonists, sometime in the 15th Century.