Martti Pärssinen identifies a massive precolonial civilization in the Amazon with a population of up to 3 million people.
Martti Pärssinen, an archaeologist at the University of Helsinki, led a study revealing that the Aquiry civilization inhabited the southwestern Amazon rainforest roughly 2,000 years ago. Using airborne LiDAR technology to penetrate the dense forest canopy, the team discovered nearly 400 previously undocumented geometric earthworks, known as geoglyphs. These structures, characterized by deep ditches and high embankments, served as ceremonial and political centers for a multicultural society that peaked between 100 and 300 C.E. Based on the discovery of these earthworks, the administration announced that the Aquiry population likely reached between 1.25 million and 3 million people. The findings challenge the long-held perception of the Amazon as a pristine wilderness, proving it was a human-shaped landscape. The Aquiry people lived in multi-family longhouses and cultivated crops such as maize, squash, and manioc. While the civilization was abandoned between 850 and 950 C.E., researchers believe the scale of their urbanism suggests the Amazon may have once supported tens of millions of people before European colonization.