A sophisticated civilisation once flourished in the Amazon basin
How the Casarabe died out remains a mystery
In northern Bolivia, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, lies a savannah called the Llanos de Moxos. This is the stamping-ground of Umberto Lombardo, of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Archaeologists once thought the Amazon basin’s soil would have been too poor to have sustained a large human population before Europeans arrived. Dr Lombardo is head of a team proving them wrong.
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This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Culture shock”
From the February 1st 2025 edition
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