Scientists used lasers to peek under the Amazon rainforest canopy — and found proof of a lost civilization

The majority of the world believed that the dense Amazonian forests were impenetrable. University of Helsinki archaeologist Professor Martti Pärssinen, who is also the lead author of an Amazonian earthwork survey, said otherwise. Using a new technology called LiDAR, researchers used pulses of laser light to peek through the gaps of the forest canopy into the Aquiry civilization, BBC Science Focus revealed. That was how they found 347 structures in this plot of land. LiDAR technology also proved another popular belief wrong: that population in the Amazon forests was concentrated in just the "sparse" areas. Published in Nature Magazine on July 29, 2026, the unimagined sight has viewers rapt with awe.

347 identified earthworks

Researchers believed that around 600 BCE to 850 BCE, the Aquiry civilization located in the southwestern Amazon Basin had a population of about 1.25 to 3 million people. The survey conducted by Professor Pärssinen found that the area was three times larger than what they expected.

He also revealed some incredible facts to BBC Science Focus: "Based on LiDAR surveys covering 4,500 km², we estimate that the entire 183,000 km² Aquiry region may contain approximately 24,000 to 30,000 earthworks linked by hundreds of roads, revealing a scale of landscape modification previously unimaginable for this part of Amazonia." But out of thousands of earthworks, only 347 have been identified so far, 334 of which have been used to explore and understand what life was like back then.

More than the eye can see

Before LiDAR technology was used, researchers and archaeologists believed that only the sparse parts of the Amazon forests were populated. But LiDAR revealed that almost three million people lived in some of the densest parts of the rainforest. Professor Pärssinen added, "These findings suggest that many other regions across Amazonia may likewise have been far more densely populated and intensively modified than previously assumed, challenging the long-standing view of the rainforest as a largely untouched wilderness." 

Future studies

After a huge discovery, Professor Pärssinen said that they planned to explore more of the region. Researchers and archaeologists will be using the same LiDAR technology for future studies and surveys, but next time, it will be used to identify trees that were domesticated by the people of the Aquiry civilization. He explained, "We will then investigate how their distribution relates to different ecosystems, as well as to the locations of earthworks and ancient road networks."

 More questions than answers

Readers were extremely impressed by the LiDAR images and wanted to know more about the Aquiry civilization. @jeffaltier5582 commented, "I always get a special thrill when I see LiDAR findings. Finding lost sites in the middle of jungles, this was science fiction stuff 50 years ago." @DriverDad58 wrote, "I wonder if all of these buildings were present at the same time, or if we're seeing hundreds of years of construction that just overlaps with older construction. In my opinion, all of these probably weren't there at the same time. If you could visualize this for modern European cities that have histories a thousand years or so old, you might overestimate what was there at any particular time."

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