How the “lost cities” of the Amazon were finally found

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Жыл бұрын

And why they were so hard to see
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The Amazon has always been one of the most mysterious places on earth.
When European colonizers arrived in the 16th century, they were captivated by rumors of a golden city, hidden somewhere in the rainforest. Their search for “El Dorado” lasted more than a century, but only resulted in disaster, death, and further conquest of the indigenous people there.
Experts thereafter looked at the Amazon and saw only a desolate jungle; too harsh for extensive agriculture and therefore sparsely populated. They believed that it had always been this way.
Until recently.
Beginning in the late 20th century, archaeologists began looking more closely at the forest floor. Working with the indigenous people who still remained there, they excavated long ditches and mounds. After mapping them, they could see that these were the markings of large settlements; walls, moats, plazas, and roads that connected even more settlements. And they were all over the Amazon.
Further reading:
The Lost City of Z, David Grann
Exploration Fawcett: Journey to the Lost City of Z, Percy Fawcett
The works of Michael Heckenberger; anthro.ufl.edu/2013/09/29/hec...
Lidar reveals pre-Hispanic low-density urbanism in the Bolivian Amazon www.nature.com/articles/s4158...
The geoglyph sites of Acre, Brazil: 10 000-year-old land-use practices and climate change in Amazonia www.cambridge.org/core/journa...
Predicting pre-Columbian anthropogenic soils in Amazonia royalsocietypublishing.org/do...
The Lore of Lost Cities - Imagining The Lost City Of Z www.forbes.com/sites/davidand...
Once Hidden by Forest, Carvings in Land Attest to Amazon’s Lost World
www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/wo...
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Пікірлер: 1 800

@Vox Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching. This video is part of our series, Atlas. Catch more episodes of Atlas at our playlist here: kzfaq.info/sun/PLJ8cMiYb3G5e4MOmzf-piIWQb4INRW18g

@pavankumaryendru817 Жыл бұрын

I know Vox has other channels and commitments but please make more episodes of Atlas and at a faster rate. I love many of your series, especially borders, atlas and earworm. They just tickle my curiosity.

@jobeyy Жыл бұрын

@@pavankumaryendru817 vox borders is cancelled

@RBYW1234 Жыл бұрын

4:26 - That soil sure looks like it follows the the path of the river, which is the same burning method used up north.

@RBYW1234 Жыл бұрын

Yay - There are people who think there was no outbreak of disease due to interacton.

@javierpinas3714 Жыл бұрын

Jesus loves you He died on the cross for our sins He's the only way to Heaven

@Ulas_Aldag Жыл бұрын

I've read about that the Americas were once home to a third of the human population, prior to the discovery of columbus and that most of the people died before they could even make contact with the colonists themselves because the diseases traveled faster then the conquistadors. Thats why most the land was already empty when the settlers arrived. So mind blowing to learn about those lost settlements now

@yomommastupid Жыл бұрын

Columbus did not discover the Americas ... He was the last of the explorers to put foot on land. Decades if not centuries before him the Clovis people, Vikings and even Chinese entered what is now Canada or Latin America.

@ardenjacob4341 Жыл бұрын

@@yomommastupid Columbus was more the first man on America for the Europeans at that time, and it became widespread since European culture affected modern America the most. But we all know(at least people who know bit history) that he is not the first man on the continent nor the first outside man to enter America.

@merrymachiavelli2041 Жыл бұрын

A third is I think a verry high estimate. I'm not sure that's supported. Most recent estimates put it at more like 50 million, which with the population of the rest of the world at 418 million in 1500 would equate to about 10.3%. The issue with much higher populations is food. Populations in Europe and Asia at this time were getting very large due to large scale relatively intensive agriculture becoming a thing. It's possible for archaeologists to not find a city, but to not see more traces of that kind of landscape transformation casts doubt that populations could have been over 100 million.

@arkajitmaity5277 Жыл бұрын

@@yomommastupid the Chinese never entered America that one has been disproved as a myth countless times

@javii5326 Жыл бұрын

How can a disease travel by itself?

@ExothermicRxn Жыл бұрын

As an archaeologist, it’s wonderful to see appropriate credit given to the Indigenous communities of the Amazon as well as archaeologists like Mike Heckenberger (a lovely person and excellent scientist). I’m glad you’ve included some of the key recent publications on findings of urbanism and complexity in the Amazon. One of my friends is currently doing research on large-scale tree domestication and management over the last several centuries in the region (Victor Lery Caetano Andrade, in case you want to read his papers) and there’s more and more research on improving our understanding. Very cool!

@corgikun2579 Жыл бұрын

As a King, it's wonderful to see appropriate credit given to my equals

@ruperthart5190 Жыл бұрын

I'm currently reading 'The Dawn Of Everything' by Davids graebor and wengrow. I was wondering if you are familiar with this book / the authors work and what you think of it (interested to get an archaeologist's opinion)? It mentions the Amazonia city civilisations and stuff.

@houseplant1016 Жыл бұрын

@@ruperthart5190 It is good but there are some shortcomings

@supremelyeducated3273 Жыл бұрын

May I remind you the hidden fact that indigenous Native American population in their motherland, the Continent of America before European Colonizers arrived was around 15 millions, while European population in their motherland, Continent of Europe was around 25 millions. Today, Native Americans population in their motherland is 15 million, while the European population, in the Continent of America + Europe, is a staggering 'TWO BILLIONS'!

@ms.gregoria2249 Жыл бұрын

@@supremelyeducated3273 My jaw dropped as I read indigenous Native American population in their motherland, the Continent of America before European Colonizers arrived was around 15 millions, while European population in their motherland, Continent of Europe was around 25 millions. Today, Native Americans population in their motherland is 15 million, while the European population, in the Continent of America + Europe, is a staggering 'TWO BILLIONS'! A sad truth. 🤔

@baroncalamityplus Жыл бұрын

That's pretty amazing. Also shows how large civilizations can vanish quickly from disease and the earth swallows up what remained.

@neeneko Жыл бұрын

yeah, one of the unsettling things about history is over the decades we have found more and more civilizations that rose and fell, vanishing from the record. it is a useful cautionary tales since they believed they were advanced enough to be immune and eternal too.

@ralfliebau5706 Жыл бұрын

lucky for us the next intelligent live that developes on this planet or visits this planet from outside after we are gone will still be able to see the shitloads of plastic we drowned the planet in ...

@trkav Жыл бұрын

Someday it will probably happen to us to.

@kebabmarley2505 Жыл бұрын

Aztecs were also sacrificing millions of people bc they thought it kept the Sun working. This was like 200 years after the cathedral of Notre dame was made for context lol

@houseplant1016 Жыл бұрын

@@ralfliebau5706 But.... we have genderneutral toilets?

@Judah132 Жыл бұрын

It's still painful to watch, that every time I see a satellite map of Brazil, the Amazon forest shrinks a tiny bit more

@Obiterarbiter Жыл бұрын

When they zoomed into that indigenous park, the deforestation all around it made me wince. Huge shame what they’re doing to such an enormous asset.

@notybussy6369 Жыл бұрын

Whats sad is that no one seem to preserve their own forest but want to tell brazil how to handle theirs. If everyone focused more locally the results world wide would be better.

@thomaswilis4682 Жыл бұрын

@@notybussy6369 a lot of people don’t have the level of introspection needed to see this... everybody loves to say brazil should conserve its forests, and almost in the same breath wonders why it’s such a underdeveloped country... this is the answer: to develop you have to build farms and mines and cities, not build fences around a forest

@vcostaval Жыл бұрын

@@thomaswilis4682 brazil could get MUCH richer and developed by researching the biodiversity of the Amazon and developing new science and products while preserving it than it ever will by deforestating everything to plant soybean and create cattle. Not to mention that the Amazon is being destroyed for cattle and mining but the meat doesn't feed the brazilian people, it gets exported while brazilians are falling into hunger once again, and the mining gets directly from the mine to the port to get manufactured somewhere else and then Brazil buys the final product again for double the price. a country doesnt get developed if its economy is based on commodities only and its people is starving.

@joaoalbertodosanjosgomes1536 Жыл бұрын

@@SomeOne-yf3qq I don't cry. Never.

@mastermax2792 Жыл бұрын

What really interests me is how sustainable these settlements and people were. They worked together with the Amazon to create some of the most fertile soil ever, their buildings avoided the destruction of of the rainforest and even made use of the rainforest in their cities. It’s truly a thing of wonder to be done all those years ago, whilst now we deplete and destroy nature whenever we construct anything.

@Zoidthelizard Жыл бұрын

@@justayoutuber1906 they most likely died out from the dessease spread by the colonizers. After all dessease spreads faster than people tought at the time. So by the time they started going on exebitions to find anything everything would have been already gone

@ed4528 Жыл бұрын

@@Zoidthelizard that's been proven wrong time after time but I'm not surprised since education on indigenous people history is really bad. Many people who studied mesoamerican cities have a theory that in reality the people that lived in those cities just straight up abandoned them the reason why they abandoned them could range from climate changes or politics. But we really don't why they abandoned them, all we know that it is very common to see in the americas.

@NankitaBR Жыл бұрын

@@ed4528 It has definitely not been proven wrong. I don't know about specific cities in Central America, but here in South America it has been pretty much proven that most settlements were destroyed by diseases brought by Europeans. I studied archeology in University here in Brazil, so I know that for a fact.

@ed4528 Жыл бұрын

@@NankitaBR what I was referring to was the famous book called "guns, germs and steel" which was proven wrong by other archeologists as well as other historians and the book also created an issue where people automatically jump on the bandwagon all American indigenous died to diseases which is not true obviously, also the cities I was talking about were the ones located in central America and there you can also find settlements that were abandon by its own people. Heck the many plain nations in United States are even theorized to be the descendants of the mound builders which are located by the Mississippi River. I know this since I'm actually a dog typing this on the computer (I can lie about who I am too 😉)

@cesarperez10 Жыл бұрын

@@ed4528 No one of merit disagrees that waves of disease caused the majority of deaths in the Americas. Have you even read that book? But even still, that book is pop-sci pseudo intellectual hogwash and has been debunked and regarded as nothing to take seriously by many scholars in related fields. So much of that book is just straight wrong. Too many laypersons with no outside knowledge or studies of these time periods come away with the most outrageous takes on the Americas as a result of that garbage.

@tayloraverett1841 Жыл бұрын

You failed to mention that “El Dorado” was eventually discovered, the zipa (leader) of the Muisca people in Colombia was ritualistically covered in gold dust, and then bathed in Lake Guatavita and offered treasures as sacrifice in a ceremony to honor their deity. Settlers later tried to drain the lake to retrieve the gold, which nearly ruined it. The Muisca are the origin of the myths of El Dorado (in Spanish, “el dorado” just means “the golden one”, so it can mean a person, a city, anything covered in gold).

@Fluster Жыл бұрын

@mothralord1709 Жыл бұрын

Yea and hilariously even after meeting the Muisca, they went: there must a bigger a city of gold thats actually called el darado and proceeded to yeet themselves into the amazon looking for a city they already found

@theotherohlourdespadua1131 Жыл бұрын

The thing is that place isn't as elaborate as what people think El Dorado should be. Reality is oftentimes disappointing...

@kapudanuderya Жыл бұрын

If it meant the city it would have been la dorada instead of el dorado

@Rafac21 Жыл бұрын

@@kapudanuderya It could still mean "The golden place" in spanish "El lugar Dorado" which would still make sense.

@31_rifkywisnuwardana25 Жыл бұрын

Just imagine how many cultures and traditions were lost because of smallpox.

@abraxasee8946 Жыл бұрын

It was not lost, the Spaniards mixed with the cultures that were there, the Mexicans, Peruvians, Colombians, etc. They would not be brown-skinned if it had been so.

@gorbachevspizzahut2809 Жыл бұрын

They would be gone anyway, we can't go back in time and surely someone from Europe, Africa or Asia would eventually come into contact with south America

@fernandoc5536 Жыл бұрын

Sad to see those other two under your comment continue to sneer at the idea that there was anything at all of value in the peoples that were lost thanks to disease-and yes, they *were* lost, and anyone who even remotely believes that every single people group and culture survives to this day thanks to mestizaje is a tool, if not a grifter. Surely they wouldn't be the exact same, of course, but they'd exist in a way that they do not do now.

@abraxasee8946 Жыл бұрын

@@fernandoc5536 Cultures change over time.

@kebabmarley2505 Жыл бұрын

imagine how many millions of europeans & asians also died from it before they developed resistance. Oh wait they never mention that

@khalilahd. Жыл бұрын

I love Vox because I never know what I’m going to learn about but I’m never disappointed. I didn’t even know the history of explorations in Amazon and now all of a sudden I have a better understanding lol. Great way to start my day 😊

@londonmoren9611 Жыл бұрын

This comment is on every Vox post

@surajkumar-gx6gf Жыл бұрын

@@londonmoren9611 😂😂😂😂 haha

@jorgeh.r9879 Жыл бұрын

Mmmn

@houseplant1016 Жыл бұрын

Or you're a very sophisticated bot or you just like giving Vox compliments.

@danceyrselfkleen Жыл бұрын

I'm trying to get a better understanding of your moist jungle, if you know what I mean.

@PremierCCGuyMMXVI Жыл бұрын

There is so much history of the Americas that have been lost overtime, hopefully we uncover more and get a more complete picture of the history of the pre-European Americas.

@QuantumNoir Жыл бұрын

Yes Sir!

@lucasjoergensen401 Жыл бұрын

The sad news is that most of what is discovered today is because of deforestation of the Amazon

@KrolKaz Жыл бұрын

You're welcome to come to the amazin and dig around for clues.

@theviniso Жыл бұрын

It's a shame how most of them didn't develop a written language and how the people who could've tell us something about their history were basicaly wiped out.

@temeria1986 3 ай бұрын

@@theviniso Same is true in Europe, before the Roman empire no one wrote anything down so for example, the only thing we know about the Germanics is what the Romans wrote down (which were at war with them). A lot is lost, everywhere, we only know the last maybe...2000 years or so.

@lesussie2237 Жыл бұрын

It's important to mention that terra prata & the Mesoamerican chinampas were a form of intensive agriculture that relied on careful soil management. intensive Amerindian agriculturalists basically "designed" the soil to be perfect for agriculture. For terra prata, the addition of limestones stabilized the pH, broken charcoal added carbon content & absorbed water, and broken clay pieces allowed the soil to hold on to nutrients better, preventing erosion, making these soils the most fertile agricultural land in the world at the time (better than the floodplains of Egypt, Mesopotamia, or Indus). These unique high-output & sustainable methods of agriculture developed in the Americas have sadly mostly been lost though there are some remnants left. These artifacts in the Amazon may allow us to reverse-engineer the process

@mrparts Жыл бұрын

We already know how to design soil mixtures. However the availability of cheap fertilizers makes it very difficult to finance any agricultural business that doesn’t rely on chemical fertilizers.

@ariyune7007 Жыл бұрын

I highly, very highly doubt that those lands were the most fertile lands in the world. You realize just how many people lived along the Indus river alone even in ancient times, right?

@Username-le4eq Жыл бұрын

@@ariyune7007 and in this video it said that millions of people could have lived there. So I would say the soil is very fertile

@ariyune7007 Жыл бұрын

@@Username-le4eq I never said the soil was not fertile. I said that the original commenter was wrong for saying that it was the most fertile soil in the world. You can't just make up claims like that.

@mrparts Жыл бұрын

@@ariyune7007 I agree. The settlements were not as massive as equivalent settlements in the so called “old world”.

@magic-maro Жыл бұрын

Most of the people uncontacted by modern society live in the Amazon. Given the sheer complexity of life in the Amazon rainforest, human habitation is even more fascinating.

@Skeleman Жыл бұрын

"uncontacted" is a bit of a news hype. these people interact with eachother and the rural parts of "civilization" in their countries.

@fastinradfordable Жыл бұрын

Surviving in the rainforest is much less ‘complex’ Than building oasis in the desert where there’s no water …. Is ‘complex. ‘

@oaktree__ Жыл бұрын

There are actually very few groups in the world that are totally uncontacted, and even those that haven't engaged with modern society are aware of it to some degree (North Sentinelese people are aware of outsiders, certainly enough to attack them and drive them off). The vast majority have had some contact with each other, and with non-Indigenous people. The frequency or degree of contact, or what it entails, might differ, but it's rare for there to be people who have no idea that people unlike them exist. There's plenty of people in remote areas living a traditional lifestyle, but they know about the modern world, often because it encroaches on their territories (e.g. Brazilian illegal loggers in the Amazon).

@realtalk6195 Жыл бұрын

Practically every primitive tribe in the Amazon and Indo-Pacific have been contacted, although you are correct in so far as that they haven't been incorporated into modern society.

@LorenzoCarai Жыл бұрын

Wow i've never heard of these settlements before. It makes me wonder how those civilizations worked, managing to survive in the middle of the biggest rainforest ever and if they ever came in contact with each other or with other coastal civilizations.

@nxzca Жыл бұрын

the only reason there's an amazon forest is because of the millions of natives that died when the new world came into contact. over years the rainforest used the thousands of thousands of bodies for nutrients.

@Skeleman Жыл бұрын

For more information on how the common narrative of human history is wrong, i highly recommend "The Dawn of Everything: A New History for Humanity" by David Graeber and David Wengrow.

@neeneko Жыл бұрын

if I recall correctly, they actually had pretty extensive trade routes. the famed 'el dorado' was actually rich in salt, not gold, because salt was a really valuable trade item that had to be moved all around the continent. the spanish just had trouble understanding there was something valuable besides gold.

@meee_5155 Жыл бұрын

They had roads to each other so they definitely interacted

@Lucas-vd2gx Жыл бұрын

There is an old Portuguese or Spanish Explorer whose name I forgot that was treated as a liar for decades when he returned from an expedition to South America and Brazil, he said there were tall buildings made of wood and several natives every few miles down the river he took in the middle of the Amazon. One theory is that he was right indeed based on more recent studies and findings, the thing was as he was sailing down the river and stoping to make contact, he was also bringing diseases to those natives. As he set sail back to Europe, disaster was done already. Several natives got sick and the Shaman if you may of each settlement probably travelled to nearby villages in order to help and ended up bringing it back to their own home. He was treated as a liar because other expeditions decades later could not see tall buildings or natives at the river banks as that old explorer did. In a matter of years, probably those buildings would be consumed by the forest, not to mention the natives.

@mOn1k3r Жыл бұрын

The amount of culture and history that has been lost just keeps growing. I hope we are able to recover what has lost to time and human action

@ViniciusSC10 Жыл бұрын

“He was here, deep in the Amazon forest” Proceeds to mark in the middle of Mato Grosso do Sul, which is at least 1,000 km away from the Amazon and in fact is another Brazilian biome, the Cerrado.

@unladenswallow5693 Жыл бұрын

It's just so sad when people do that in otherwise well-made videos.

@ViniciusSC10 Жыл бұрын

@@unladenswallow5693 the video was great and really informative, but it’s very annoying when someone makes a mistake about your country geography, especially because that’s a research the Vox Team could’ve done in 1 minute. I’m sorry, but that’s like saying the Grand Canyon is in Texas or Pyramids are in Palestine.

@PG-3462 Жыл бұрын

I'm not even Brazilian and I noticed that...

@ababyalbatross9016 Жыл бұрын

The pronunciation of Tenochtitlan also physically hurt me

@javen69 Жыл бұрын

could have been forest before being logged

@LLCL2012 Жыл бұрын

This video really blew my mind, as a Colombian I thought that it was going to explain how the real "el dorado" was actually Lake Guatavita. But learning about those interconnected amazon cities was amazing, I have always wondered about the pre-Columbian history of the Americas since most of the history lessons I was taught were from the European point of view.

@WiLDCHiLD. Жыл бұрын

That's the thing about history. The "winners" write the books.

@felixliljegren Жыл бұрын

Norway and Sweden was conquered by the church in 12th century, yet we dont talk about it

@koolaidblack7697 Жыл бұрын

@@felixliljegren That's because Norway and Sweden aren't brown (at least not yet)

@isacj81 Жыл бұрын

As a Brazilian, it blows my mind to imagine that we once were home to a great uncharted and complex civilization. Thanks so much for educating me, Vox ;) Edit: it also blow my mind how Brazilian media has never shown this to us.

@PedroBrazz Жыл бұрын

I think is because different from Asian or European people, this civilizations did not record any historical data to tell people in the future about it. Our Brazilian culture is relatively nayv about that fact that we need to create historical data to support the culture.

@fastinradfordable Жыл бұрын

To say their empire of 1/3 of the human population was “Uncharted” Is colonialist.

@manorsolomon951 Жыл бұрын

@@PedroBrazz Asian and African civilizations are well documented. Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, Nile-Egypt and Chinese Han are most prominent civilzations has data

@isacj81 Жыл бұрын

@@fastinradfordable Maybe, but I don't think so. Even indigenous groups didn't know its existence, let alone us. So, in that way, it's safe to say it's uncharted for everyone, colonialist or not.

@GuiiBrazil Жыл бұрын

Long live the internet. Its a lot easier for a small brazilian youtuber to show us this, than the big sensacionalist media. What sells more? No wonder why TV is dying.

@kenster8270 Жыл бұрын

In Calçoene in the Brazilian state of Amapá there's a mysterious archeological site sometimes nicknamed "the Stonehenge of the Amazon" because it's believed to have been an astronomical observatory.

@Luma1606 Жыл бұрын

Love seeing high quality archaeology content from Vox, as an archaeology student from Vienna it really helps to bring a broader perspective on the topic!

@Game_Hero Жыл бұрын

RIP Fawcett, died searching what he believed in, sticking true to his convictions until the end, I don't even have half the courage he has to treck long periods of time in the Amazon like he did.

@joaoalbertodosanjosgomes1536 Жыл бұрын

🙏

@andrewman69 Жыл бұрын

He led his son and his son's friend to untimely deaths for nothing. After reading The Lost City of Z it becomes abundantly clear he never had any intentions of living a long life and he managed to lead those poor boys to their deaths in the process. Still an impressive man but hardly one to he deified.

@Game_Hero Жыл бұрын

@@andrewman69 I'm not deifying anyone.

@joaoalbertodosanjosgomes1536 Жыл бұрын

Over the 🌎 had and have it.

@teogonzalez7957 Жыл бұрын

I read Percy fawcett’s memoir. He believed the city of Z was built by white Greek pre columbian travelers, and thought they came from atlantis. Kind of a wacko. There’s also some stories that definitely aren’t true, like him saying he met a race of ape men.

@intreoo Жыл бұрын

That last sentence hits home. The indigenous communities of the Americas, alongside practically any native or indigenous community, live the most sustainably and in touch with the Earth. I saw a video of a Native-American man in the Southwest that grew his own garden in the desert with *no* water using an ancient method, and here, you can see how large-scale societies were possible just by giving back what you took from the forest and living in harmony. The desire to exploit and take whatever you can what was brought by the Europeans soiled the land and overtook these modest but golden values. It ended up only benefiting Europe, hence why they are so wealthy today, while most of their exploited colonies that are now countries live in poverty. I really hope that we see *much* more indigenous and native representation globally over the years. Another thing to note is that, if the Mayan civilizations were able to rise out of the dense jungles of Central America, there would've been little reason the sam wouldn't have been possible for the Amazon!

@BallawdeQuincewold Жыл бұрын

Yep, when I think of the native american Buffalo jump I think of living in harmony with nature

@hallooos7585 Жыл бұрын

@@BallawdeQuincewold Ok dude

@vacafuega Жыл бұрын

Yes! I too hope that people will hand more land and power back to indigenous people.

@erketyrettile4734 Жыл бұрын

@Zaydan Naufal thats what 40 years of communism do to countries

@erketyrettile4734 Жыл бұрын

@Zaydan Naufal have you ever been to eastern europe? And btw the balkans apart bulgaria are in southern europe

@Lucas-vd2gx Жыл бұрын

There is an old Portuguese or Spanish Explorer whose name I forgot that was treated as a liar for decades when he returned from an expedition to South America and Brazil, he said there were tall buildings made of wood and several natives every few miles down the river he took in the middle of the Amazon. One theory is that he was right indeed based on more recent studies and findings, the thing was as he was sailing down the river and stoping to make contact, he was also bringing diseases to those natives. As he set sail back to Europe, disaster was done already. Several natives got sick and the Shaman if you may of each settlement probably travelled to nearby villages in order to help and ended up bringing it back to their own home. He was treated as a liar because other expeditions decades later could not see tall buildings or natives at the river banks as that old explorer did. In a matter of years, probably those buildings would have been consumed by the forest, not to mention the natives.

@ebiebertson7970 Жыл бұрын

I wonder what would have been if the disease brought overseas had never wiped these people out. Would the explorers have blended their ideals with the strong and healthy locals instead of waging and winning a war on an already depleted community both in health and strength in numbers?

@Lucas-vd2gx Жыл бұрын

@@ebiebertson7970 You and me both dude

@minecrafttroller1000 Жыл бұрын

His last name was orellana I believe, although it might have been a different one

@tahsinrahman8468 Жыл бұрын

You might be mentioning abouy Francisco de Orellana.

@williammoreno-pp1og 2 ай бұрын

@@ebiebertson7970tbh, if diseases didn’t wiped my poeple out, wars would still happened, and the population of native Americans will keep growing and growing, and growing, until is like 1 billion people or even more, also people would of been able too keep there cultures and traditions it would most likely resemble Africa or Asia, mesoamerica would have had massive cities, the Inca empire also, there cities would grow into mega empires, and there would def be a new architecture, in the Americas, Europeans would grow tired of the wars and they would just want too trade, the Americas would have been absolutely populated, by millions upon millions of Amerindians.

@moonsmien Жыл бұрын

I love how these videos are always informative yet easily digestible! I usually have a short attention span so this is such a treat for me everytime I need something to watch while I'm eating or even simply resting.

@xt7519 Жыл бұрын

They were looking for large stone cities...in a place where there simply isn't a lot of stone available...and in many cases, a century or so after what was to all intents and purposes their apocalypse due to disease and collapse. Instead of looking for what was actually there in abundance. Typical of the time and world view of the explorers of that period. It's a good thing that people kept looking and sat down and listened to the indigenous peoples in the region who had been trying to tell them at least some of the fragmentary history they still possessed, as well as many of the artifacts they had.

@rjfaber1991 Жыл бұрын

In fairness to them, it would have been very difficult to recognise these patterns without sattelite imagery, 3D scanners and other modern technology. Not impossible, but certainly very tricky, especially if you don't know what you're looking for.

@TheKmanKVSC Жыл бұрын

They were clearly looking for a bunch of abandoned buildings and castles like Europe or India has.

@haywoodjblome4768 Жыл бұрын

Hindsight 20/20. We've only recently discovered these things, with technology available that these people couldn't even begin to imagine. We've had satellite images since the 1950's and it still took us this long to get it, let alone with the primitive technology at the time

@larrote6467 Жыл бұрын

spoken like someone who knows very little about the subject; you're just trying to say good things about marginalized people to feel morally superior

@dygotosa4730 Жыл бұрын

I just picked up 1491 by Charles Mann (2nd ed. 2011) and it covers a lot of this (populations, landscapes, smallpox, terra preta) as well as fascinating narratives of how we got from the lost past to today! Highly recommended!

@davidwright82 Жыл бұрын

Have a read of this book: The Discovery of the Amazon: According to the Account of Friar Gaspar de Carvajal and Other Documents.

@napoleonibonaparte7198 Жыл бұрын

The Louvre and British Museum: **

@wasniahc1 Жыл бұрын

this is gonna be my devious lick yet 😈

@gorbachevspizzahut2809 Жыл бұрын

What things do they have from the Amazon because if so I want to see them

@Bananaman-hk6qw Жыл бұрын

Where would those poor people there keep it then?

@TomM-ny1zp Жыл бұрын

That's so fascinating. We honestly have so much to learn from these civilizations.

@abraxasee8946 Жыл бұрын

in what sense

@user-sb8ks1ij7b Жыл бұрын

@@abraxasee8946 sustainable living and farming which is important because of climate change

@abraxasee8946 Жыл бұрын

@@user-sb8ks1ij7b In that aspect i agree with you

@mehreenmalik1869 Жыл бұрын

@@abraxasee8946 their culture and history as well as how they thrived in harsh conditions

@Sammysapphira 5 ай бұрын

@@user-sb8ks1ij7bEvery other nation in the world has mastered that. They're not uniquely special lol.

@sahara-lu6eq Жыл бұрын

we need more videos like these, atlas series is one of the best

@cascadia6260 Жыл бұрын

I’ve spent a lot of time researching this, can’t wait to watch

@johnchessant3012 Жыл бұрын

We're so fortunate to be living in a time when these long-time mysteries can finally be solved with technologies like satellite images

@castorchua Жыл бұрын

I'd rather have some mysteries and not be so close to the end of times.

@Jolgeable Жыл бұрын

There are some new technologies that scan the land with drones and lasers and stuff, it gets some detailed pictures of the land "erasing the trees" using computers. It's really impressive, I've seen a video in English on youtube a while ago.

@zikalokof1challenge414 Жыл бұрын

Yet we're far away from perfect. Titanic was only found in 1985 and we still have mysteries like MH370 to solve

@wadafik Жыл бұрын

This is so heartbreaking. If only the people of the lost cities had the knowledge to record their history and culture, we could have learned so much from them.

@mwrees Жыл бұрын

They did have writing, just their records were mostly destroyed by Europeans

@mahatmaniggandhi2898 Жыл бұрын

@@mwrees how do you know?

@unoriginal1086 Жыл бұрын

@@mwrees yes it's so sad that the europeans did this.

@jgg204 Жыл бұрын

what do you think we would learn from them? how they sacrificed their own children and danced to the sky b/c they thought it would bring rain during dry seasons?

@chriss.3740 Жыл бұрын

@@jgg204 I mean Europeans thought that there was a man who walked on water and turned water into wine… still do

@Efretpkk Жыл бұрын

Each video, a masterclass of story telling and editing. Plus very interesting

@diekje8728 Жыл бұрын

As an archaeologist I’m so happy to see no one in the comments has asked if the gold was found. This is actual science, brought in a well researched, well made video. Thanks a lot!

@poolerboy Жыл бұрын

Well, was it though?

@jackrotz2139 Жыл бұрын

I too am curious

@jaddyrose9318 Жыл бұрын

@Poolerboy 0077 Fawcett reached Z. He died there.

@poolerboy Жыл бұрын

@@jaddyrose9318 But did someone else eventually find it?

@jaddyrose9318 Жыл бұрын

They were too late

@sepulcrumsumus8909 Жыл бұрын

0:04 "deep in the amazon rainforest" The X is at least a few hundred miles from where the amazon forest even starts. Thats the brazilian midwest, where you find the "cerrado" biome, a kind of savanna. So, either the X is in the wrong place or the phrase was just for dramatic effect.

@_hanz73 Жыл бұрын

I always love these kinds of videos that you guys are making!!! it's just so good!

@lemonle138 Жыл бұрын

W video. Great content as always 👍

@aninjaguardian Жыл бұрын

It saddens me that their were probably countless individuals each with their own story that are now lost to time

@mrarroyo571 Жыл бұрын

“You need have no fear of any failure” Famous last words

@richardnunez3474 Жыл бұрын

That is amazing, great research doing this piece. Ty

@mariabop 6 ай бұрын

Thank you for this video! I can't believe how many times I've heard many people saying that the indigenous people of the Americas had nothing and were still living in the stone age before the Europeans came. That's just simply untrue

@christiandjami1965 Жыл бұрын

I would argue that these cities are similar to Rhine River Valley Cities, stretching along the Amazon River as a highway that connect these cities, then the Diseases arrived, wiping the inhabitants of the cities like Black Death eradicated huge chunks of populations in Europe. Then survivors abandon their Urban lifestyle and move deep into the jungle and away from the River where the disease originated from, and they create urban legends and myths surrounding such catastrophic events that no more major civilization ever developed along the Amazon River. We know that cities get erased from the face of the earth pretty quickly. A lot of cities are buried under sedimentation, taken over by the nature and slowly crumbling and disappear, for example after the Hun and Mongol invasions, a lot of once major city reduced to small village or even completely abandoned, and the only clues left are written accounts on the city and how it got destroyed. The Amazonian civilization didn't leave any survived written accounts, and we dismiss the whole thing as a myth, but I believe there's a metropolis somewhere deep under the ground by the Amazon River.

@fredact Жыл бұрын

The real miracle, is that the Europeans managed to rebound after the Black Death.

@jebusxxl Жыл бұрын

I live for these Atlas videos, so good!

@michaelnelson2976 Жыл бұрын

WOW! this is really incredible and it gets all exciting about the possibilities of adventure!!

@sleapzyy6391 Жыл бұрын

“These lost cities shows how humans and the rainforest once coexisted a relationship were barely just beginning to understand” Wow.

@bnb3394 Жыл бұрын

Absolutely incredible

@tothemaxgaming8240 Жыл бұрын

I keep feeling sad about how small the Amazon is getting

@joaoalbertodosanjosgomes1536 Жыл бұрын

@@justayoutuber1906 He is my brother. But very rich. I am very poor.

@MissDinie16 Жыл бұрын

That’s just so freaking amazing. I hope in time we can learn more about them!

@Galadrian70 6 ай бұрын

What a great clip. History mysteries are often pretty simple. We just have to look at them with a different vision.

@Jadeloika77 Жыл бұрын

Recent LIDAR scans have shown huge cities a vast network of roads connecting all of them. It wasn't thousands but millions of people who inhabited these. The jungle just grew over everything hiding all traces.

@primejay9975 Жыл бұрын

Didn’t mention any discoveries that have been done with Lidar??? That’s literally what’s gunna revolutionize the whole process

@Game_Hero Жыл бұрын

5:41

@lordsiomai Жыл бұрын

Imagine a world where Aztecs, Incas, Mayans, and all the other indigenous peoples of the Central and South America somehow survived the colonization era

@Quixina Жыл бұрын

We are still here but a lot of us are mixed with a degree of Spanish ancestry too bc of the colonization (we are called mestizo but I don't really use the term bc the history behind it)

@yesid17 Жыл бұрын

@@Quixina it's a bit more complicated than that-imo it's useful to consider the three groups that Canada identifies as Indigenous: First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. The Inuit people are pretty different from the rest and are much more recent arrivals to the Americas, even though they have been in Canada for thousands of years-the First Nations have been here upwards of 10 or even 20 thousand years-so the Inuit have comparatively not been here as long-and then there's the Métis, which is like Mestizo but French, Métis communities formed when French colonizers intermarried with Indigenous folks in Canada-since the same did not happen during English colonization, there is no analogous Mixed group in English America but there are some mixed groups in the US that predate US colonization, like the Louisiana Creoles and Nuevomexicanos of Louisiana and New Mexico respectively-basically what I'm trying to say is that my interpretation of the original comment was more like "imagine a world in which the organizational and economic structures of First Nations remained the dominant ones" as opposed to "imagine a world in which the First Nations themselves still exist" maybe im being too generous though lol

@SirFaceFone Жыл бұрын

Imagine if they were immune to European diseases.

@LLCL2012 Жыл бұрын

Spoilers (at least in Colombia) most of them were displaced and or exterminated by the government, for example near where I live there was a small settlement of "Yariguies" that survived until the 20th century but, oil was found in their territory. and Standard oil aka Exxon wanted to exploit it, so... You can imagine the rest.

@lordsiomai Жыл бұрын

@@Quixina oh yes i am aware thank you. What i meant was if their nation had survived into the modern world (without the influence of European powers and etc). It'd be so cool to see the Aztec civilization as a country today don't it? Also, we too use "meztiso" here in the Philippines though i wonder since it doesn't have the same negative connotation here. Hmmm

@bethbartlett5692 Ай бұрын

Excellent little documentary, wish it were longer.

@forgetmilk2818 Жыл бұрын

never been this early

@trulythatbag7790 Жыл бұрын

Pog

@Imanshots Жыл бұрын

Same

@person_307 Жыл бұрын

@aidanlegler5852 Жыл бұрын

Same

@maartendewit1056 Жыл бұрын

Same

@nedisahonkey Жыл бұрын

Obviously it's pretty well known but the book "The Lost City of Z" is an amazing page turner of a non fiction book

@joaoalbertodosanjosgomes1536 Жыл бұрын

On this movie the rivers are very narrow. They are very large. French 💋s to you from Brazil.

@grahamyates2490 Жыл бұрын

Yes, a great description of a stunning life.

@joaoalbertodosanjosgomes1536 Жыл бұрын

@@grahamyates2490 👍

@joaoalbertodosanjosgomes1536 Жыл бұрын

👍

@ad-oz9tk Жыл бұрын

Wow this was great. Thanks.

@kriena4190 5 ай бұрын

It's such a sad thought that a massive civilization would just disappear

@lsedge7280 Жыл бұрын

I wonder if these discoveries could pave the way for sustainable protection of the rainforest while enriching the lives of those living around it, as it seems these were prospering communities which managed to live without damaging the rainforest significantly?

@ashishpraveendhas1100 Жыл бұрын

As an Indian our forefathers used to say if you want to find old or ancient cities first look for water resources like rivers, lakes, ponds. People need water more than food to run cities.

@jesperverbruggen587 Жыл бұрын

Another great video 🙌👏

@PotatoSeb 5 ай бұрын

Thanks for this vids❤

@sarjulia Жыл бұрын

Thank you for covering this, Vox team. What is happening *right now* to the Amazon and its inhabitants at the hands of colonisers is a tragedy all onto itself.

@Sk8forsocks 7 ай бұрын

Uhh the people ruining the Amazon is the south american countries themselves. Nothing to do with colonisers . victim mentality.

@chrisherrera8384 Жыл бұрын

Technically, machu picchu was not discovered untill in early 20th century. 1911 to be exact. Who knows what else is out there.

@BienvenidoAlHoloceno Жыл бұрын

Very interesting video!

@joaoalbertodosanjosgomes1536 Жыл бұрын

Yes.

@gustavocardoso5435 2 ай бұрын

Thanks, this is needed to be seen.

@stvrdo Жыл бұрын

To anybody really interested in the history of Amazon civilization, I warmly recommend John Hemmings magnificient book 'Tree of Rivers'. There you will learn how insignificant Fawcett is to the whole story.

@mattialussana Жыл бұрын

Super interesting video! In relation to this topic, I strongly suggest the reading of the book "Conquest of America: The Question of the Other" by Tzvetan Todorov. It really opened my mind when I was in university, I totally changed my perspective about indigenous people, that was influenced by the superficial education I had in school.

@kluger2222 Жыл бұрын

Great Content.. well research

@queefmaster4204 Жыл бұрын

This was fantastic!

@ultrasonicradiation Жыл бұрын

It's amazing how much damage European imperialists have caused to the native people in South America, intentionally and unintentionally. It's also amazing that no disease were carried from the Americas to Europe.

@japsperklee7473 Жыл бұрын

the reason why no major plagues hit europe after the age of exploration is because there are no tamable animals in the americas to transmit viruses to humans except extremely limited numbles of alpacas.

@vulcanmemes9770 Жыл бұрын

It's heavily exaggerated. The population in the Amazon was already in heavy decline by that point

@ultrasonicradiation Жыл бұрын

@@vulcanmemes9770 So the genocides against the native people, the slavery, the atrocities and diseases committed by the European colonists were all heavily exaggerated? I don't see the European-descent in the America speak the native languages, worship native gods. Instead, I see them speaking English or Spanish, and worshipping Jewish gods. I see a systematic destruction of their culture and religion that is still ongoing to this day. I see one of the greatest cultural genocides committed by the Europeans, in history that is still ongoing.

@TheKmanKVSC Жыл бұрын

That's mostly because how Europeans were more exposed to diseases because of large agricultural activities and multiple waves of plagues.

@warringtribes6689 Жыл бұрын

Europe has always been the hub of diseases.

@papalouis9111 Жыл бұрын

So sad to see all the immense deforestation literally all over the satellite imagery... Takes away from the amazing story

@marcoschagas9646 Жыл бұрын

Very cool to see the geoglyphs that we have here in my state Acre

@iw3892 Жыл бұрын

Pre-European history in the Americas is so cool. I hope that in the future there will be more of an emphasis on it in school and that new discoveries will be covered on the news.

@naveenn6235 Жыл бұрын

Just see😳 the amount of Amazon forest cut down in video , Vox should make a video about before & after cutting down of Amazon forest and what it is used for currently 🖖

@luanlopes9415 Жыл бұрын

This is not Amazon, is Cerrado is barelly next to the Brazilian capital, is a native Savannah of South America, is more next to Argentina or Bolívia, than to Amazon

@mambamolt_tt73 Жыл бұрын

The Amazon rainforest has a lot of hidden tails about it. While studying and researching about the Amazon rainforest, It becomes even more interesting and quite phenomenal to learn more stuff and stories about it. Especially with the city of Z this a rlly cool

@raygodwin68 10 ай бұрын

Just finished listening to the audiobook The Lost City of Z by David Grann, it was great to watch this video and actually see Percy Fawcett. Fascinating story and a tragic end to a culture. I highly recommend the book.

@lastnamefirstname8655 Жыл бұрын

nice video. these ancient peoples are amazing.

@kilomillensimus9379 Жыл бұрын

God, I love the sources being listed and linked in the video description.

@alleg0ry Жыл бұрын

That pfp fits this comment too well

@eeveefennecfox Жыл бұрын

I didn't know the amazon rain forest had cities,espcially lost cities,I know there's a few tribes hidden in the amazon rain forest,but not cities,but the amazon rain forest is a great way to hide things though cause of the forest is so huge

@shantanusinghtomar.9499 Жыл бұрын

Amazing video

@hypercane2023 Жыл бұрын

Great I ordered them on Amazon should be arriving soon

@shpadoinklejoe Жыл бұрын

What's the song used at the end? It's so good!

@hackkk Жыл бұрын

: you can find it in the site of APM music under that name.

@mrblank1195 Жыл бұрын

Good morning folks.

@samwood357 Жыл бұрын

Fascinating. Just fascinating.

@123dodo4 Жыл бұрын

Such a cool concept

@NLaertes Жыл бұрын

The Amazon rainforest was a garden. The ancient groundskeeper died and the garden grew over the cities...thats why its hard to see it

@gwkiv1458 Жыл бұрын

For your sake I hope you do not believe this

@ACHistory Жыл бұрын

Very interesting video! It is believed that El Dorado came from the Spanish misinterpreting a native Colombian festival called "El Hombre Dorado" - where a man covered in gold would make sacrifices for gods in a lake.

@jenlolo8902 Жыл бұрын

Not sacrifices, but throw gold artefacts and esmeralds to the lake

@larsfinlay7325 Жыл бұрын

my old room mate Jorge Castro of Colombia does research about this and when he talked with me about it I couldn't fathom what had been lost and it took him explaining it to me several times for me to understand the scale of human settlement that existed before the spanish showed up

@redred7289 Жыл бұрын

The History Channel: I'm sure aliens have something to do with.

@napoleonibonaparte7198 Жыл бұрын

The next question would logically be, “Were there large empires that ruled over these settlements and what civilisations were there?”

@hughgo2 Жыл бұрын

Read the book 1491

@gg3675 Жыл бұрын

Why would that logically be the next question? You need to be more imaginative if you want to even get a glimpse at how variable societies of the past were. Read "Dawn of Everything."

@nicolasreinaldet732 Жыл бұрын

Unlekely becase the lack of carring animals realy limit the range at wotch you could do warfare and thus how far away you could control things. The Incas were a exception becase they had amazingly build roads and local storehouses so warrior could walk light and arm themselfs on place.

@gg3675 Жыл бұрын

@@nicolasreinaldet732 Why would so many of these sites be fortified if there was no threat? Im really confused why the massive network of rivers doesn’t strike you as a method of moving people, or why Amazonian people would somehow be less capable of building impressive road systems than the Incas or Mayans

@nicolasreinaldet732 Жыл бұрын

@@gg3675 In order to answer your questions: 1-Wars dont necesseraly means large empires. 2-You are right about rivers I should have tought about that. 3-My disbelive on the existance of a massive system of roads and werehouses is that a lightning rarely strikes twice in the same place, the Incas did something amazing building their empire and the Mayans and Aztecs were both restricted in theyr influence zone to way smaller areas than they, if i recall middle school corectly the mayans werent even under one governement but we a culture with many diferent states.

@FabioMarcineli Жыл бұрын

Correction: the region described as 'south amazon' shown in the map is not even close to the Amazon rainforest. It is a whole other biome called Pantanal, a huge seasonal wetlant. It is surrounded by yet another huge biome called Cerrado.

@ha22el5 Жыл бұрын

Pantanal é mai pro MS e Paraguai, a parte mostrada, Mato Grosso, é Amazônia mesmo, inclusive o Xingu. O negócio é que a amazônia descia bem mais, até encontrar o pantanal justamente, mas o dematamento comeu boa parte desse "sul. Se você olhar no mapa hoje, Mato Grosso é quase todo cerrado, com uma mancha de amazônia que é a reserva do Xingu. O mesmo tá acontecendo em Rondônia.

@joaoalbertodosanjosgomes1536 Жыл бұрын

@@ha22el5 Amém.

@susmitanayak2101 3 ай бұрын

Well researched👍

@vincenttuua7866 Жыл бұрын

Vox is like your high school presentation on steroids

@FreshSmog Жыл бұрын

Thank god they didn't find the golden city, because all they wanted to do was to plunder every ounce of gold from it.

@afvlct Жыл бұрын

thank you for putting ratanaba in the spotlight, great video!

@heyhey3603 Жыл бұрын

Oh how I wish this video was longer 😫

@shawnweed265 Жыл бұрын

I am not sure how I got here, but this was fascinating. Thanks.

@davidbenedict5617 Жыл бұрын

you could make a movie about this

@crazy_acid77 Жыл бұрын

It cannot be understated how incredible, beautiful, and advanced the cultures of the Americas are and were, and how tragic it is that so much of it has been lost to history thanks to the colonization of European settlers.

@zeik04 Жыл бұрын

More incredible is how advanced the Europeans where. They where like 100years more advanced then the rest of the world. A race full of explores and scientist taking over the whole world just using theyr brains.

@crazy_acid77 Жыл бұрын

@@zeik04 I smell a racist

@zeik04 Жыл бұрын

@@crazy_acid77 Yes you are the best example of the racist in 2022. Racism against white minoritys are the new norm these days.

@fredact Жыл бұрын

@@crazy_acid77 Following the tried and true liberal agenda--when you don't like the facts, yell "racist".

@fredact Жыл бұрын

@@zeik04 The Europeans were actually like 1000 years more advanced than the stone aged peoples they encountered in North America, and 500 years more advanced than the ones in South America.

@crit2823 2 ай бұрын

Thank you Vox. Because of this, I became interested in the Lost City. Well, all of your documentary videos are very beautiful and captivating. But here in this Lost City, after watching it, I saw the next KZfaq video recommendation from National Geographic and it's also about the Lost City of El Dorado, the City of Gold. And this video was just 4 months ago, and it's the latest update about the Lost City in the Amazon. When I watched it, I got even more excited because of the ancient cities they discovered, and with the help of their technology for scanning the entire valley, they discovered a new area where people may have lived. When they went there, it wasn't easy to reach because it's a dense forest and uphill, and very dangerous because there might be bandits and snakes. When they arrived, they confirmed that people indeed lived there because of the pottery shards and stone structures. They are just starting to discover these because they're sure that there are many more hidden cities inside the Amazon and it will surely take a long time(years!!!) to discover. Must try watching it too, it's truly amazing.

@yoshimeier3060 Жыл бұрын

Man thats so frustrating. I wish we knew more I wish we could see these cities at their most prosperous but we never will. All thats left to wonder is wehere anf what else we missed.