Ecuador lost civilisation

Sent in by Gary … https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67940671.amp … a lost Amazon valley full of settlements, in numbers comparable to the Maya. These lost settlements are in Ecuador and were found by using LiDAR to peer through the jungle. They exist in the shadow of a volcano – which means  a soil rich in nutrients, and they thrived between 500BC, or a little earlier, and AD500. Altogether, they have plotted around 6000 platforms which would have held a house or building – including temples and palaces as well as more humble abodes. The archaeologist spoke in admiration of the straight roads and path ways from one platform to another, and from one settlement to another. One perfectly straight road was 16 miles in length. That means a well surveyed routeway. However, the same archaeologist suggested the straightness of these roads and paths may be linked to ceremonies and a belief system. Why was it necessary to build them perfectly straight? It sounds almost like Alfred Watkins ‘Old Straight Track‘. Canals distributing water to settlements and farms were also seen by the LiDAR mapping. More interesting is the fact these Amazonian settlements were roughly contemporary with the Maya civilisation – on the other side of South America. Was there a connection between the two?