Scientists using laser scanning were able to discover 11 previously unknown settlements that are hiding under the Amazon jungle. According to IFLscience, pyramids and a developed system of waterways have been found in the settlements..

The study examined six sites spread over 4,500 square kilometers in the Llanos de Mojos region of the Bolivian Amazon using helicopter-mounted lidar imaging technology.. In total, scientists discovered two new large settlements called Kotoka and Landvir, and 24 smaller ones, of which 15 were previously known to exist..

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It is noted that the settlements are not just clusters of huts, it seems that they were once quite developed communities with their own ceremonial architecture and a complex structure of water management, consisting of canals and reservoirs.. In larger settlements, platform mounds and cone-shaped pyramids up to 22 meters high were also found..

According to the researchers, the settlements date back to 500-1400 AD, when the region was inhabited by representatives of the Casarabe culture..

It was once believed that the Amazon forests were too dense and wild for large human settlements to exist in pre-Columbian times.. But the discoveries of recent years have challenged this idea: it has been discovered that the rainforest was once teeming with a network of large-scale settlements..

Many discoveries have been made thanks to lidar, a technology that was developed in the 1970s for space exploration.. Since then, this visualization system has proven to be an invaluable tool for archaeologists who explore the landscape in search of lost settlements..

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“As in other tropical regions, the application of archaeological lidar to the Amazon has launched a transformative process of discovering, documenting and reworking decades of assumptions about the nature of ancient societies,” said Chris Fisher, an archaeologist and professor of anthropology in Colorado who was not involved in.

Scientists note that there are many more discoveries to be made in the Amazon forests, but there is little time left for this, as they suffer from climate change and deforestation..

Earlier, for the first time in 60 years, scientists managed to find a sample of the Qumran manuscripts in the caves of the Dead Sea.. In addition, the researchers found a mummy of a child and a basket, which are several thousand years old..