| ▲ | culi 2 hours ago | |
The Amazon rainforest was extensively modified by pre-Columbian indigenous societies. Some anthropologists have even called it a "manufactured landscape". Modern LiDAR mapping has revealed thousands of large geometric ditches, reservoirs, causeways, mounds, and earthen infrastructure.[0][1] Up to 10% of soils are highly fertile man-made terra preta soils and trees like cocoa, acai, and brazilnut show an unnatural "hyperdominance" distribution due to ancient orchards. Many plants throughout show some degree of domestication[2][3] And some have even proposed a possible human role in the transition of parts of the Amazon from grassland to rainforest about 10k years ago[4] https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article/282/1812/201... You don't achieve a population of 3M people without such extensive landscape modification. [0] https://www.zmescience.com/science/archaeology/archaeologist... [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02773... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/08/humans-living-... [3] https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/environmental-archaeolo... [4] https://www.discovermagazine.com/10-800-years-ago-early-huma... | ||