Name: Ancient Pyramids Uncovered in the Amazon
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The pyramid was built over 5,000 years ago, even before the pyramids of Egypt and Mesopotamia, a time when archeologists had believed the Amazon was populated only by hunter-gatherers.

This discovery rewrites the history of complex societies on the continent.

Ancient Pyramids Uncovered in the Amazon

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The pyramid was built over 5,000 years ago, even before the pyramids of Egypt and Mesopotamia, a time when archeologists had believed the Amazon was populated only by hunter-gatherers.

This discovery rewrites the history of complex societies on the continent.

Ancient Worlds

Ancient Pyramids Uncovered in the Amazon Published March 23, 2023NARRATOR: It is one of the most extraordinary and baffling archeological finds of recent years.QUIRINO OLIVERA: (Dubbed) As we cleared away the top layers of soil, we began to see stones in a circular arrangement. Then platforms and terraces began to appear. That really surprised us. It seemed extraordinary.NARRATOR: As the full structure emerged, their surprise grew. Here was a massive pyramid, as tall as a five-story building, constructed from clay, stone and reed, with a mysterious stone spiral built on its summit. The carbon-14 dates were even more astonishing. The pyramid was built over 5,000 years ago, even before the pyramids of Egypt and Mesopotamia, a time when archeologists had believed the Amazon was populated only by hunter-gatherers.NARRATOR: Montegrande rewrites the history of complex societies on the continent. For over a century, when archeologists wrote about cities and high civilization in South America, they focused on cultures like the Inca of the Andes or the Nazca of the Pacific coast. But here at Montegrande is clear evidence of a complex society and monumental architecture at least 3,000 years older than either the Inca or Nazca.EDUARDO NEVES: If you compare the evidence from early architecture of monumental architecture, of plant domestication, we see a lot of things happening before here, in this part of Peru, in the Amazon, not in the coast and only from the mountain. So, I think it really brings, you know, highlights the importance that, that, the place that the Amazonian indigenous people have in the deep cultural history of this part of South America.NARRATOR: The excavation of an almost identical but much smaller spiral pyramid in Ecuador revealed a tomb. This makes Quirino think that Montegrande also is the tomb of a religious leader. If he’s right, it would give meaning to the mysterious spiral, so carefully constructed on top of it.QUIRINO OLIVERA: (Dubbed) The spiral is one of the most ancient symbols in the history of humanity. It signifies the beginning and the end of life, the endless creation of one generation from the preceding one. I am sitting in the center of the spiral architecture, and right beneath me in the spiral’s center would be the tomb of that high-status individual. We believe that he is seated in a fetal position, and from the center of his head, the spiral expands out, like the Axis Mundi, the axis of the cosmos. This also probably had important astronomical associations, as in most ancient societies who studied the night sky, the stars and linked them to life on Earth.

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Ancient Pyramids Uncovered in the Amazon

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