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The Amazon hides some of Earth's biggest secrets, ranging from ancient lost civilizations to uncontacted tribes. Technological breakthroughs like LIDAR lasers have uncovered vast pre-Columbian urban networks hidden beneath the canopy, while an estimated 60% of the forest remains scientifically unexplored....
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00:11The Amazon.
00:13More than two million square miles of dense forest,
00:17penetrable only by its rivers.
00:22Long considered a pristine forest,
00:25seemingly too hostile to have ever been inhabited
00:28by people prior to the arrival of Europeans.
00:33And yet, in recent years,
00:35several discoveries have been made,
00:38evidence of human habitation,
00:40hidden in caves,
00:43under the canopy,
00:46buried in the ground.
00:49What if, contrary to long-held belief,
00:52the tropical forest was not as untouched by human hands as we thought?
00:56What if wide-ranging, complex cultures thrive throughout the jungle,
01:01long before European conquest?
01:06As scientists delve deeper into the exploration of this difficult terrain,
01:11they are convinced the Amazon was home to numerous well-established communities.
01:19Archaeologists, archaeobotanists, and anthropologists
01:22are studying the artifacts these people left behind
01:26in an attempt to understand the ancient world of the Amazon.
01:31Who were they?
01:33How many of them were there?
01:35How did they manage to live in the forest?
01:38And what do these ceramic figures say about their beliefs
01:42and their vision of the world?
01:47Thanks to new investigative technologies,
01:50researchers are making great strides in understanding
01:53these highly developed communities
01:55and piecing together their existence in the years before the conquest.
02:07From the depths of the jungle to the shores of the Amazon River,
02:12the full story of this isolated part of the world
02:16is only now being brought to light.
02:21Hidden in the Amazon.
02:38These images, recently shot by ethnologist David Green and his team in northern Brazil,
02:44not far from the border with Guyana, are of an exceptional discovery.
02:55David was led to this cave, hidden in the hills of Amapa,
02:59by following indigenous guides who have special knowledge,
03:03and accompanied him through their territory.
03:13The
03:26I'm here at Bat cave.
03:28so it's some really beautiful works of art this is a mysterious sight because it's still unknown
03:37and so this is really an important place to continue archaeological work even before it gets
03:59destroyed acutely aware of the value of his discovery david left everything untouched
04:05only filming and photographing the artifacts until a proper archaeological assessment can be made
04:15a few weeks later he enlists the help of archaeologist stefan rostan an expert in pre-columbian
04:22cultures in the amazon he is one of the few people who can immediately identify what david found
04:28and place the items in historical context at his base in guyana stefan learns of the discovery
04:37did you see only one anthropomorphic urn or some more there are probably nine or ten urns yeah
04:47um but they have all been broken
04:54i've noticed there's a lot of yeah different handles
04:59um and different zoomorphic forms sometimes it's really hard to understand what animal they are they
05:08seem to be like a composite of different creatures but i believe there's a lot more this is just you
05:15know really we just looked at a small part for the archaeologist these remains are characteristic of the
05:23ariste one of the cultures present before the arrival of europeans
05:27these are typical of the anthropomorphic funerary urns found all along the amazon they are made from
05:37pottery with a sculpted human face usually on the neck the ashes of the deceased were placed in them or
05:44even their bones after decomposition the most important thing is that we have the main part of this pottery
05:51which is familiar from other excavations at other sites so we can extrapolate and reconstruct the urn
05:59into something like its original form as it initially was
06:03complete so we have a representation of a funerary urn from the so-called ariste culture located in the
06:12region straddling french guayana in brazil it is a huge territory some 300 kilometers long the culture
06:19dates from around the year 1000 until the early centuries of colonization anyway it's a very
06:25interesting discovery because these burial caves are extremely well hidden more broadly the discovery
06:33belongs to a vanished world the traces of which remain buried in the largest tropical rainforest on
06:39the planet it's the forest itself that has made it so difficult to learn about the people's living there
06:46in the pre-columbian era the dense vegetation makes moving through it almost impossible and has long
06:52stopped scientific exploration and there was little evidence to suggest that there was much to be
07:00studied the forests vegetation consumes everything breaking it down or growing over it and early accounts of
07:11exploration like that of conquistador francisco de oreana have been forgotten the year was 1542 the spaniards were engaged in
07:22the conquest of the incas of Peru but
07:25oreana wanted to push further into the forest in search of mythical lands of gold and cinnamon he ventured inland
07:33following the amazon river from its source in the andes aboard two small ships carrying a total of 50
07:4156 men he was the first european to cross the entire amazon forest and to encounter the people who inhabited
07:48it
07:50all night long we passed through a series of very large towns by daybreak we had covered more than 20
07:58leagues
08:01but the further we advanced the more densely populated the country became
08:11the problem is that a hundred years later there was no one left on the banks of the amazon the
08:20microbial impact of western diseases had done its work
08:23so disbelief prevailed and persisted for five centuries right up until the 1980s when archaeologists began to take an interest
08:32in the amazon
08:34stefan has studied the amazon for more than 30 years and is a pioneer of amazonian archaeology
08:40his goal is to provide a better understanding of the cultures that existed before 1492
08:48obviously we only have a very sketchy knowledge in certain regions
08:52so we're trying to piece together a puzzle that still has many pieces missing
09:00stefan is eager to collect and connect scattered pieces of knowledge in order to paint a complete picture of the
09:06pre-columbian amazon
09:11what do today's tribes know about the mysterious designs their distant ancestors used to decorate the urns
09:17to address the question stefan meets with native americans who still practice the art of pottery
09:29the palikurs are an indigenous group whose territory is the same as the now extinct ariste culture
09:36straddling guyana and brazil
09:42the palikurs as we know have inhabited this region since at least the european conquest and probably before
09:49so they were very possibly in contact with aristes and indeed may themselves have been ariste
09:56so maybe they can help us understand the designs and see if they still have meaning today
10:08dora lisa is part of a family that has been creating pottery for several generations
10:18the exchange takes place in the palikur language through an interpreter
10:26this is an urn that was found recently
10:29and i wanted to know if in the drawings it means anything to her or nothing at all
10:42this one i recognized
10:45and that one
10:47definitely i just noticed this one
10:50ah good that's good
10:51so this became the palikur style which has evolved until today
10:56i had another question
10:58for me this pottery represents death
11:02so we have a new body
11:04and the soul will be at rest
11:06so to find out the ethnicity
11:09she says she can't confirm anything
11:15that one is unfamiliar
11:21we think there must have been a cultural upheaval throughout the amerindian world at the time of the urn
11:26european conquest
11:27resetting the ethnic map of the amazon
11:30and the meaning of certain designs disappeared with these populations
11:36so you have to look at other vestiges
11:38other sites
11:39other signs left by the amerindians
11:42in this great rain forest
11:50the next phase of exploration will be done by air
11:57michael mestre is in charge of the operation
12:01this plane is equipped with a lidar system
12:04an airborne laser able to penetrate the canopy and precisely map the contours at ground level
12:12to that end the survey must be carried out from the sky
12:19to cover the entire section under investigation the small plane must make more than fifty tight turns
12:29in an operation that lasts several hours
12:32there's no room for weak stomachs
12:37in this way dozens of square miles can be observed
12:41as if the area had been deforested
12:53the data acquired during the flight is processed in cayenne by the company that operates the lidar
13:03thousands of data points are assembled and transformed into a model that restores the contours in the terrain
13:10from the undulations of the canopy to the tiniest variations in relief at ground level
13:17if we can zoom in here on that zone
13:21it could be
13:23could be a site with ditches
13:25a circular layout
13:27we have a trench dug at the top of the hill
13:29marking out a central reservation
13:32these sites are typical of pre-columbian occupation
13:35particularly in french guayana
13:37these are known as crowned mountains
13:41crowned mountains
13:42Michael has been studying this type of terrain for a long time
13:46and the use of lidar has made a series of archaeological discoveries possible
13:54today the figure is something close to a hundred
13:56it is a very widespread phenomenon
13:59several cultures seem to have produced this kind of layout
14:02but for what purpose?
14:04we're not yet sure
14:17the sites could be almost anything
14:20residential buildings
14:22defensive structures
14:24places of worship
14:30a few weeks later
14:31Michael has the opportunity to excavate one of the crowned mountain sites
14:36spotted by lidar
14:39I think there's another ceramic right underneath the first one
14:44a second one right there
14:45the shapes are common
14:47large undecorated basins
14:50we've seen them before
14:52ordinary ceramics can be reused in a funerary context
14:55they may be objects that belong to the deceased
15:00these perfectly intact large vases were deliberately buried at the top of the crowned mountain
15:06a form of offering that suggests a link to the beliefs of certain pre-columbian peoples
15:19because they are so inaccessible
15:21thorough excavations of hidden jungle sites like this are very rare
15:26often archaeologists can only access them when construction work happens
15:31as was the case on the outskirts of Lake Tefe
15:34more than 1200 miles from the mouth of the Amazon
15:37during building work on a school
15:40while digging
15:41the residents discovered a ceramic funerary urn nestled at the bottom of a pit
15:45aware of the importance of this type of find
15:49they immediately informed archaeologists at the Mamirao Institute
15:54first we found one
15:56then we unearthed two
15:58three, four
15:59we thought that was already a lot
16:01then five, six, seven, eight, nine appeared
16:04the village accompanied us at all times
16:07it was a truly special moment for all of us
16:16carefully collected one by one
16:19the urns then traveled more than 600 miles by boat
16:22through the forest to the laboratory at the University of Santarém
16:35there, archaeoanthropologist Ann Rapp is charged with analyzing the urns
16:40and the material contained inside
16:45here we now have a group of nine urns collected together
16:50we cannot say whether all the individuals died at the same time
16:54but we may be sure that they were all buried during the same period
17:00that's to say before the arrival of the first Europeans in the region
17:08for the scientists
17:09it is a unique opportunity to examine the funeral rituals of pre-columbian societies
17:16the first step is to x-ray the artifacts at a hospital
17:20Ann is the first to see the results
17:25is that all bone?
17:26bone, yes
17:29it's very interesting
17:31we really have a huge amount of material in this container
17:35yes, how does it compare to the others?
17:38yes, it's impressive
17:40it's going to be an interesting dig opening it up and getting it all out
17:50to access the contents of this small ceramic jar
17:53the lid, which has not been moved for at least 500 years
17:56must first be detached
17:59it's an extremely delicate operation
18:02with the container itself weakened by its long stay underground
18:11you lift, I'll put my hand here and pull
18:14this time we'll try in the opposite direction
18:24there it is
18:29examination of the urn can finally begin
18:41Anne and her assistant are about to meet former inhabitants of Lake Tefe
18:48here we may have the grandparents or great-grandparents
18:52of people who encountered Oriana in the 16th century
19:01to ensure she doesn't lose any material
19:03Anne must proceed very slowly
19:09it will take at least two days to clear away the sediment
19:12and reach the first significant remains
19:20we have an exceptional amount of preserved material
19:25especially in the context of the Amazon
19:27where we generally see a very limited preservation of organic material
19:36examination of the first bones immediately reveals
19:40what kind of ritual the bodies were subjected to
19:46you can actually see evidence of cremation
19:51you can actually see evidence of cremation
19:53the greyish areas are clearly marks of fire
20:00but the scientists first objective is to sort and organize the bones
20:06do they come from the skeleton of a single individual
20:09or of several?
20:18that's probably one of the last bones in the chest
20:22here we have an idea of the sections of the skeleton present
20:26there are no duplicate bones
20:28so it appears there is only one individual inside
20:34a single individual and a complete one at that
20:37the funeral ritual is becoming clearer
20:43we can see the two-stage process of the funeral
20:46first the cremation
20:49followed by the bone material being placed inside the urn
20:52with extreme care
20:57once the remains were inside the urn
21:00it was decorated with a unique pattern
21:02meant to represent a new skin made of pottery
21:11but for the anthropologist the investigation is not over
21:16the remains of the individual have more to share about their owner's identity
21:24several parts are very marked
21:27these are joints and muscle insertions that have worn over time
21:31so we may be sure that this is a fairly old adult
21:35we always tend to think that in the past people died young
21:38but that isn't the case with what we've seen in the Amazon
21:42there are several clues to indicate that people live to advanced ages
21:45maybe up to 50 or even 60 years
21:52the scientist notices other characteristics too
21:57here is the archaeological femur
22:00if we compare it with our model
22:02which is from a 1.68 meter tall individual
22:05this is definitely from someone much smaller
22:08measuring between 1.5 and 1.55 meters
22:12based on the size
22:14it may be a female individual
22:19so the occupant of this urn seems to have been an elderly woman
22:28and the story continues
22:31the urn itself
22:33particularly some of the patterns Anne is uncovering
22:36shed more light on its significance
22:45here we begin to see the area around the eye
22:47the mouth
22:48and what appears to be a drawn cheek
22:54this is the eyebrow, the nose, a tiara
22:57and here the area around the ear
23:02a face
23:04perhaps to evoke that of the old woman
23:06or the spirit of the deceased
23:10in reality
23:11this pottery cannot be separated from the individual
23:15the study of the ceramics in the urns
23:18is based on a particular individual
23:20so we try to tie it all together
23:26Cristiana Barreto is an expert on Amazonian iconography
23:29working at the Emilio Goeldi Museum in Belém
23:34she has a particular interest in the drawings on the urns recently discovered at Tefe
23:40her objective is to understand what the peoples who shaped and decorated these objects wanted to communicate with them
23:48these ceramics were meant to have a great visual impact
23:51they are ritual ceramics made to be used in funeral ceremonies
23:56there is always a white background to increase the contrast of red and black
24:01the high contrast is a way to attract the gaze of observers
24:05drawing them into the labyrinths
24:07into the iconography
24:09where they see snakes, jaguars and animals
24:14often somewhat disguised and hidden
24:19while mysterious in the eyes of the layman
24:21to the initiated these forms make perfect sense
24:26it looks symmetrical and geometric
24:29but it's actually the geometric representation of a jaguar
24:33we have the jaguar's eyes and the face
24:36they are in the background but suddenly they come forward
24:39then go back giving the idea that the jaguar's moving
24:42may be coming forward towards us
24:51here we have a cobra, the movement of a cobra, but it isn't filled in
24:56it could be in the background
24:58this also gives us a sense of movement from the inside to the outside of the urn
25:04as if it were coming out of the urn
25:06it isn't surprising, it's a visual process of animation
25:10where everything seems to be moving
25:12everything in Amazon visual logic has to do with movement
25:19patterns and symbols representing cultural beliefs
25:23and showing the role these urns played in funeral ceremonies
25:28you have to imagine these urns as the focal point of a funeral ritual
25:33with its dances, musical rhythms, alcoholic drinks and other drugs
25:40it's all geared to attaining an altered state
25:44etching these symbols in people's memories
25:46they mark and enter the memories of people
25:58plants and animals from the natural world
26:01can be found on pre-Columbian objects throughout the Amazon
26:06now, scientists are interested in learning more about these traditions
26:10and these people
26:20the world
26:26the world
26:27Stephan meets with Christiana in Belém
26:29in a bid to better understand the tribes of the Amazon
26:33and their conception of the world
26:38Belém is a large city at the mouth of the Amazon
26:42and very interesting for its museum of Amazonian archaeology
26:46the first of its kind in the world
26:48set up in 1905 by Emilio Goldi
26:51it has an absolutely fascinating collection of urns
26:54pieces of enormous beauty that you won't find anywhere else
26:58some really innovative things for my investigation
27:03Today, the institution's collection contains more than 2 million artifacts
27:09Taken together, they are like a huge clay book
27:12on the shared history between humanity and the world's greatest rainforest
27:23Based on their similarities, some of the more recent additions to the collection
27:28seem to suggest that multiple Amazonian tribes shared a common belief system
27:38here we have set aside some of the funeral urns from different cultures
27:43they are almost all from the Amazon estuary
27:46they reflect the identity that each people wanted to give to its clan
27:51to its ethnic group
27:52it is resounding proof of the human diversity that has existed in the Amazon
28:06Ceramic styles and details have helped researchers identify hundreds of different cultures that existed in the Amazon basin
28:15But it's the characteristics common to all of these artifacts that shed new light on the world view of those
28:22who created them
28:25there are also similarities
28:27for example, arms are represented as snakes and here animals are also used
28:39they use scorpions to represent the eyes
28:48we can also say that the use of animals to represent the human body
28:52the human body is a pan-Amazonian tradition
28:56there is a certain analogy to it all
28:58an analogy between images and the natural world
29:07it's this idea of not differentiating between nature and culture
29:11of it all being part of a whole
29:14it's a complex concept for us Westerners to grasp
29:19we have a very naturalistic society
29:21we need to separate culture and nature to know where civilization is and where it isn't
29:27but with the Amerindian there is a continuous thread and ultimately no frontier
29:35according to anthropologist Philippe Descola
29:38animism was the predominant belief system for many Amazonian cultures
29:47animism is something I discovered during my field work
29:50when I resided for a few years among the Achuar people in the deep Amazon
29:56it is also when I discovered that most of the plants and animals were conceived by them as having an
30:01interiority
30:02a soul, or in any case a subjectivity, a capacity for reflection
30:14there is no nature in their world
30:18there are simply social partners with feathers, fur, leaves, bark, etc.
30:25with which the Achuar people exchange daily
30:28through magical incantations
30:31dreams in which they saw these non-human beings addressing them
30:35in the form of a person
30:37in order to start conversations, dialogues, etc.
30:47I realized that this was something very common in the Amazon
30:50and in other parts of the world
30:54there is no conquest of the wild by the domestic
30:57which is the most characteristic way for us to conceive of our relationship to nature
31:03there are social relationships that are permanently established between humans and non-humans
31:08that are not necessarily easy relationships
31:15after all, the woolly monkey that comes to see you during a dream
31:19the next day, we will try to kill it and to eat it
31:24the relationships between humans and non-humans are relationships of mutual accommodation
31:30very powerful relationships of attachment, competition and solidarity
31:36a spiritual union of people with the natural world was typical for Amazonian cultures
31:43but scientists want to find the culture's creation myths
31:47stories that explain the origins of a people's world view
31:51in order to better understand the significance of the urns and their patterns
31:58handed down by oral tradition
32:00these stories are difficult to piece together and understand today
32:05but Stefan is keen to track them down among some of the peoples of the forest
32:13this is the Maroni River
32:15which separates Guyana from Suriname
32:18here, the forest crowds the riverbanks except in spots where it's been pushed back by the villages of the Wayana
32:25people
32:28Stefan hopes they can tell him more about the ceramics and other artifacts
32:35the Wayanas continue to represent their founding myths through symbolic figures
32:40so this is an opportunity to find out more about the stories behind them
32:49the chief of the village where Stefan stops has something to show him
32:53and leads him to the large community shelter known as the Tikusipan
33:03this is what the archaeologist is looking for
33:06a siel de casse or Malawana in their language
33:09a wooden disc decorated with strange beasts that represents the Wayanas belief system
33:16what is the name of the person who did this?
33:19Aymawale
33:22Aymawale is one of the few people still able to reproduce this type of design
33:28it is a very old art form that he learned from his grandfather
33:33one he keeps alive using ancestral painting techniques
33:38I prepare my paintings, how to put it, it takes patience
33:42it takes a long time to paint a siel de casse
33:47but he also knows the stories and the myths that inspire them
33:55and that is what interests the archaeologist the most
34:02what is the siel de casse for?
34:04a siel de casse is an object that protects the community and the village
34:10there are six main patterns
34:12so there is the jaguar, for example here
34:15the caterpillar
34:17then there is the fish animal, the tapir
34:20which is often on the siel de casse too
34:23plus the turtle and the fish
34:25do you choose all the patterns?
34:28yes, of course
34:30here I was inspired by my grandfather
34:34each pattern represents a legend, a story
34:38that's the giant anteater
34:40what does that do?
34:43legend has it that the giant anteater killed its baby
34:48then went to the aquatic monsters and killed a water spirit
34:53so the shamans know how to harness its power to take revenge
34:57for example on evil spirits
35:01what about the turtle?
35:04the turtle is the wife of god, the supreme god called Kuyuli
35:09when there was the flood
35:10the god transformed his wife into an underwater turtle
35:14and his children are like eggs
35:17that's what the story says
35:20and you tell these stories to children
35:23yes, of course
35:25then there are other patterns, like the squirrel
35:27it's actually a squirrel monster
35:31it's small
35:32but it has supernatural power
35:35there are plenty of monsters in the stories
35:37and lots of legends
35:38with us, yes
35:39the Wayana
35:43what the Native Americans describe today
35:46when they tell us about their legends
35:48is this close interaction between humans and nature
35:51we can better understand the relics they left behind
35:58Philippe Descola has collected and studied these myths
36:01to try to understand if they connect to a broader story
36:07what we find absolutely everywhere are these little stories
36:11five-minute stories
36:13which give a good indication of what the mythical times were like
36:19how, at such and such a time
36:20such and such a species of hallucinogenic plant became what it is
36:25the sorts of small events that will cause so-called natural species to emerge
36:29little by little
36:32and these are small stories
36:34these are small pieces of this great story of speciation
36:43the great story of speciation
36:46how all living things, plants and animals
36:50came to exist
36:56there is an original unity
36:58a great culture that unites humans and non-humans
37:02who are not really distinguished from one another
37:09the myth allows us to at least understand this
37:12the golden age if you will
37:14a golden age where animals and plants behaved like humans
37:18cooking, hunting, playing music
37:24Amazonian mythology is a story that starts from culture
37:27and goes towards nature
37:28while we are doing the opposite
37:31this singular relationship Amazonians developed with their environment
37:35is at the heart of everything they do
37:38but how long have humans been living in the Amazon rainforest?
37:42is it possible to trace when these creation myths were first told?
37:49a tiny fragment of pottery of inestimable value offers a clue
37:57this history of ceramics is a long one with very early origins
38:03some of the fragments of ceramics we have here are 7,000 years old
38:08it is the oldest dated pottery ever found in the Americas
38:18these fragments come from the Monte Alegre region
38:21in the heart of the Amazon where this art form was born
38:30reaching the area requires a 400 mile journey up river from the mouth of the Amazon
38:35and then a connection with one of the river buses that travel to isolated villages
38:44archaeologist Edith Pereira has been making the trip regularly for more than 10 years
38:49and each time it's a journey back to Amazonian prehistory
38:56the very first traces of human settlement can be found here
39:01drawings on the rock face that date back to 12,000 BCE
39:12but these decorations that have lasted millennia are now in danger
39:26the biggest problem here today is wasps
39:31a type of wasp makes its nest very close to the paintings
39:40and sometimes on top of the paintings
39:46it's a very real risk for the paintings and for the scientists
39:51several stings from these large insects can be fatal
40:00no loud talking or sudden movements
40:08these are the only paintings in the area that have been successfully dated
40:12and they are much older than was previously thought
40:19we carried out a project to try to better understand
40:23not only the cave dwellings but also life in the villages
40:28we found raw materials for making pigments with usage marks
40:33the oldest traces in the shards was dated to some 12,000 years ago
40:43they are the oldest observable traces of human presence in the whole of Amazonia
40:52it is further proof that humanity has lived here for thousands of years
40:57in this environment that until only recently was thought to be completely free from human impact
41:06but where is the evidence that is usually left behind by thousands of years of human activity and occupation
41:12and how did the ancient peoples inhabit it?
41:17finding the answer requires a flight to a point seemingly as far away from any form of human activity as
41:23possible
41:26a CNRS research station set up deep in the heart of this green ocean
41:32accessible only by helicopter
41:45Stefan has come here to meet ethnobotanist Guillaume Odon
41:50here we are in the forest
41:52we can look around for any signs of human presence
41:55but at first sight it is only plants
41:57lots of different vegetation
41:59it is tempting to think that it might be very difficult to find any evidence of the presence of Amerindians
42:05from 500 or 1000 years ago
42:07we have always known that the region around the research station was occupied by Native Americans
42:12but until now it was thought that human occupation was rather tenuous
42:18with a low impact
42:20but in fact no
42:22this forest has been much more impacted than previously thought
42:26we have clearly shown that there have been massive occupations over a long period of time
42:31it is difficult to find sites without any trace of man
42:38it takes a great deal of work across multiple fields of research to achieve results like these
42:47Guillaume leads the long time project
42:49a wide-ranging multidisciplinary study
42:52tropical soil specialists, botanists, ecologists and anthropologists
42:58are all working to identify the plant species living in this corner of the jungle
43:02which could help them find evidence of ancient human presence
43:08to determine all the species present at this site
43:12Guillaume called on professional climbers
43:15their mission is to collect leaves from 130 feet above the ground
43:20so that these giants of the forest can be studied with accuracy
43:26the feedback from the botanists will allow the ecologists to say
43:29for example, that in this section
43:3140% of the trees have edible fruits
43:35or 25% of the trees can provide timber for the construction of traditional houses
43:42mapping the tree species reveals significant concentrations of palm trees
43:47bearing edible fruits like the kamus and the patawas
43:52all these numbers in red are palm trees
43:55there are 5 bakawa
43:57around 50 patawas
44:00when we scroll the map
44:01we can see that they are very present
44:03if we go to this other plot
44:06long time 2
44:07there is only one patawas
44:13here
44:14the presence or lack of certain tree species
44:17is a strong indicator as to whether the land was ever occupied by people
44:23as you see
44:24we are in this transition zone between the top of the hill
44:27which was occupied
44:28and the bottom of the hill over there
44:30where there was clearly no occupation
44:34back here is the area known as the vine forest
44:38lots of tangled vines here
44:40this is a low canopy forest
44:42with less than 10 meters of tree height
44:46everywhere we are surrounded by vines
44:48they are often on the sites of former villages
44:56when cross-referenced
44:58all this information allows scientists to pinpoint the location of villages
45:02and also areas that were set aside for agricultural use
45:06where the vegetation was cleared
45:12the way it works is
45:14when a village is set up
45:22little by little
45:24people clear the area around it
45:27where
45:30useful species
45:32food species
45:33can be established
45:37then the year after
45:40there will be another clearance
45:42where
45:43further species
45:45will also become established
45:47once the village is abandoned
45:50all that remains are the
45:52planted species
45:55or the food species
45:56that have become concentrated
46:01likewise
46:02they also end up becoming established on the site
46:05of the abandoned village
46:08we then end up with an enriched zone
46:12so we have these changes in vegetation
46:15these developments
46:16these new formations
46:17can they be dated?
46:19can we pinpoint an approximate time
46:21when these stages actually occurred?
46:24from around 50 datings
46:25taken from all the sites
46:28we can identify
46:29two main periods of occupation
46:32in the area around Nourag
46:34the first was between 1,000 and 1,200 years ago
46:39and the second between 400 and 600 years ago
46:42the moment of contact
46:44exactly
46:44all these phenomena seem to have stopped abruptly
46:47at the moment of contact
46:49all over the Amazon we have this proliferation of evidence
46:53particularly in the vegetation
46:56which demonstrates a strong pre-Columbian occupation
46:59almost everywhere
47:00whether along the Amazon
47:02along the Orinoco
47:03in the western Amazon
47:05or the upper Amazon
47:06we see significant concentrations of human activity
47:09all the data points towards that
47:14analysis shows traces of 83 different species of domesticated native plants
47:21including cassava
47:25coca
47:26coca
47:27and pineapple
47:30this abundance and diversity has however long puzzled researchers
47:36most soil in the Amazon is not suitable for agriculture
47:41and yet the gigantic forest actually thrives
47:45despite very poor conditions
47:49domestic crops cannot grow in the acidic soil
47:52a result of heavy rains
47:55how did the people of the Amazon manage to cultivate food?
48:01archaeologists have recently discovered that pre-Columbian people in the Amazon
48:05developed a method for transforming the soil into very fertile land
48:10terra preta
48:12or black earth
48:15Brazil is where the most spectacular terra preta sites can be found
48:20in some places it is several feet thick
48:23and is the subject of serious archaeological excavation
48:28know that this terra preta here formed with this soil
48:32so they look very different and they are very different in a way
48:35but that's the matrix for that
48:37we have to have human action interfering in the yellow soil in order to create the terra preta
48:44scientists believe terra preta is an indication of the onset of domesticity
48:50but how did the uncultivatable soil become something fertile enough to sustain human occupation
49:01analysis of the soil's composition can provide answers
49:08researcher Manuel Arroyo Calin regularly brings back samples of terra preta for study in his London laboratory
49:18what I can see here very clearly is large quantities of bone fragments
49:26you also see here large numbers of fine rounded fragments of pottery artefacts
49:38and here it's very interesting because these soils are absolutely full of charcoal
49:45and that already begins to unravel part of the story
49:49for one the large amounts of charcoal have got to be associated to burning
49:54the sort of thing that you'd find associated to domestic production of food
50:00and the large number of fires used to fire the pottery
50:04and then you have waste management activities
50:07simply to pile it up and to burn it slowly
50:10Indigenous people mixed everyday waste products
50:14and other materials into the acidic soil to create terra preta
50:19but in scientific terms what makes this mixture so fertile
50:24charcoal helps to attract stuff
50:26it has a role in contributing to higher organic matter retention
50:33the secret ingredient was the organic matter left after trash was burned
50:38all of these fragments of bone and potentially some of the pottery is providing a pool of calcium and phosphorus
50:47which act as plant micronutrients that are absorbed by plants and so that helps plant productivity
50:54the result is a living soil rich in bacteria which contribute to the absorption of nutrients by the vegetation and
51:02ensures lasting fertility
51:06while the terra preta still has its secrets
51:09pre-columbian people were able to transform uncultivatable land into one of the world's most fertile soils
51:16the terra preta is an outcome of a process which only through various phases of occupation have created the thick
51:25expanses that have subsequently been used as agricultural expanses
51:33they are at the very least signatures of higher demography and possibly sedentary settlement in the Amazon basin
51:42probably kicking in around 1500 BC and intensifying and growing in population as we go along
51:53if markers are placed on a map of the Amazon where terra preta has been found
51:58they create an outline of territories known to have been inhabited by Amerindians
52:06using this data
52:07scientists estimate the total population of the greater Amazon was somewhere between 8 and 10 million people when Europeans arrived
52:17you have to imagine a very diverse very populated pre-columbian Amazon where all these worlds were interconnected
52:25they were sedentary populations but very mobile
52:31after seven months of travel
52:34Orellana recorded his final thoughts on the peoples of the forest
52:40as we said all those we have met on this river are people of great reason and ingenuity as can
52:48be seen from all their works
52:50as well as their vivid drawings and paintings of all colors which are a wonderful thing to see
53:00a hundred years later there was no one left
53:03what happened?
53:06it's simple
53:07when the Europeans landed on the continent and came to the Amazon
53:10they brought with them viruses and germs for which the Amerindians had no natural defenses
53:18these viruses spread and many Native Americans died before Europeans had even encountered them
53:27explorers arrived in villages to find only dead bodies and skeletons in hammocks
53:31they hadn't even had time to bury their dead
53:35with its population decimated by disease
53:38the Amazon was left uninhabited
53:42a vast land seemingly available for newly landed settlers
53:48and a blank page in the history of humanity
53:51that scientists are only now beginning to write
53:57this is a territory of some 7 million square kilometers
54:02which still holds many mysteries for scientists
54:05we discover new things about the flora and fauna every day
54:08in the case of human settlements
54:10there are as many discoveries to come as have been made so far
54:14if not more
54:19opportunities to explore new territory are often the result of modern development
54:29in northwestern Brazil
54:31deforestation has revealed tiny geometric structures spotted from the air
54:36and scattered over tens of thousands of square feet
54:43in Colombia following the dismantling of the armed groups that occupied the forest
54:49archaeologists discovered a huge wall of pictures
54:53tens of thousands of paintings
54:56animals, humans and non-humans
54:58at Chiribiquete
55:00which was recently listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO
55:04the first official acknowledgment that these rich and mysterious cultures are part of our invaluable heritage
55:13we are doing this research
55:13after thecast-based explorative research
55:13the past teenage days
55:16the past來到 of the past
55:17the past
55:17we will enjoy the past