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According to the author, it is likely that the towns held 1,000 or even more citizens. In total, Heckenberger notes that the total regional population could have been some 30,000 to 50,000 inhabitants. However, the number is difficult to determine accurately, as a large part of the region is still to be studied.
In his article, Charles C. Mann addresses the find of "geoglyphs" in Acre, Brazil during the 1970s. This find was the first to lead to an acknowledgement of more than small civilizations in the ancient Amazon (Man 1148). Although the purpose of the geoglyphs is unclear, they do suggest a sophisticated civilization as recently as 1250 C.E., according to carbon dating. Indeed, researchers suggest that indigenous people lived in the region in dense settlements.
At the Beni in Bolivia, there is also evidence of a sophisticated and developed civilization, which used natural knolls and constructed mounds as dwellings in order to adapt to the extreme weather conditions in the...
The people seem to have lived on fish, which migrated during annual floods, and from crops produced by fields in the region. This and other finds in the region led researchers to believe that large amounts of people lived there in ancient times. Some go as far as stating that these numbers could have amounted to hundreds of thousands of people (Mann 1149). According to Mann, there are early Jesuit accounts of the region to support this hypothesis.
The society was organized around networks of causeways and canals to move people and goods. Current archaeological efforts are focused upon determining the key areas that controlled the regional infrastructure. Whatever the future reveals, it is certainly likely to be surprising.
References
Heckenberger, Michael J. Lost Cities of the Amazon: The Amazon tropical forest is not as wild as it looks. The Scientific American, Oct. 2009.
Mann, Charles C. Ancient Earthmovers of the Amazon. Science, Vo 321. 29 Aug. 2008.
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