Scientists uncover Aquiry civilization in Amazon over 1,700 square miles
Scientists just uncovered the Aquiry civilization, which thrived in the Amazon from 600 B.C. to A.D. 850.
Surveying over 1,700 square miles of dense foliage in the Amazon, researchers found hundreds of geometric earthworks, squares, rectangles, and octagons, mainly in Acre, Brazil, many of them connected by ancient roads.
It's a huge deal because it shows the Amazon was shaped by people long before Europeans arrived.
Aquiry may have housed 3 million
At its peak (100 to 300 A.D.), Aquiry may have had up to three million people, pretty wild for a lost society.
Building one earthwork took around 300 people!
The civilization declined quickly between A.D. 850 and 950, which researchers say is similar to what happened with other ancient cultures.
Lead researcher Martti Parssinen said their social organization and traditions even remind him of ancient Greece.