Archaeologists in Bolivia found a lost city

Scientists from the University of Bonn published their findings this week in the journal Nature. There they explained that thanks to mapping with laser technology they found eleven settlements of the ‘Casarabe’ culture.

The mapping was carried out with LIDAR technology and so far represents the first known case in the lowlands of the Amazon. Among the findings there are two important cities with fields and canals.

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The investigation began 20 years ago when scientist Heiko Prümers discovered an ancient civilization on the Mojo Plains.a humid and jungle area of ​​the Bolivian Amazon.

Since then, year after year, researchers from this university have continued to find remains of this culture that lived between the years 500 and 1,400, according to what was published in the magazine.

This time, thanks to LIDAR technology, the discovery was greater. This relatively new technique is a scanner that allows a relief map of any terrain to be created from the air. Thanks to this, the team of German scientists has already covered 200 kilometers and found two cities and nine other smaller towns.

Until now, what is known about these ‘Casarabe’ culture territories is that they had a large network of roads and buildings to protect themselves from the Amazon rains.

Thanks to the 3D reconstruction, it was also possible to discover that they had pyramids of up to 22 meters that they used as cult centers and that the cities were surrounded by extensive walls.

The two largest towns are Landívar and Cotoca, each with an extension of more than a kilometer. According to what was found, they were the administrative centers around where the other zones were settled.

“At the moment, it is not possible to estimate how many people lived there. However, the layout of the settlement itself tells us that planners and many active hands were at work here,” explained Heiko Prümers, professor at the University of Bonn and leader of the research.

Researchers have discovered pyramids and canals built by an ancient civilization beneath the forests of the Bolivian Amazon. A @Nature video describes how researchers used LiDAR technology to make the discovery. Read the research paper: https://t.co/l2wpJnulSz pic.twitter.com/dyKR567Etv

—Nature Portfolio (@NaturePortfolio) May 27, 2022

New technology

The LIDAR laser (Light Detection and Ranging) is a method that has revolutionized the way in which archaeological finds are made around the world.

With this technology you can remove vegetation from any terrain on a map. This is of vital importance, especially in areas as dense as the Amazon jungle.

To use the LIDAR laser it is necessary to survey a terrain from the air. The scanner is attached to a helicopter or drone that transmits about 1.5 million laser pulses per second.

This type of technology is widely used in autonomous cars that can drive themselves.. LIDAR allows the position of millions of points and the distance between each one to be known in real time, which is why it has become a common sensor for these vehicles.

Source: Elcomercio

Ronald Payne

I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.