New Publication Paleoamazonia Reframes the History of the Amazon as a Territory of Complex Societies

Huaca Montegrande is featured in this publication, which challenges the idea of a pristine Amazon and presents it as a landscape historically inhabited, planned, and transformed by sophisticated civilizations over millennia.

The academic publication Paleoamazonia: Archaeology and History of Biocultural Heritage, Volume 1 – Material Heritage: Biosphere and Archaeology offers a profound reexamination of Amazonian history, questioning the long-standing myth of the Amazon as a virgin and untouched territory. Through archaeological evidence, advanced cartography, and new technologies, the work reveals that the region was home to complex societies that developed advanced systems of knowledge, territorial planning, and sustainable ways of inhabiting the landscape.

Curated by Swiss anthropologist and architect Adine Gavazzi, this first volume brings together contributions from 12 international specialists, integrating interdisciplinary research supported by LiDAR technology, a key tool for identifying traces of human intervention hidden beneath the Amazon’s dense vegetation.

Center of spiral structure in Montegrande

Among the publication’s co-authors is Dr. Quirino Olivera, Director of ASICAMPE, who leads the archaeological research at Huaca Montegrande, located in Jaén (Cajamarca). His contribution offers crucial insights into one of the oldest and most significant ceremonial complexes in northern Peru, reinforcing the importance of this site for understanding early Amazonian societies.

Other case studies highlighted in the volume include the cultural landscapes of Yamón, in the Peruvian Amazon, where the act of inscribing stone transforms the environment into a living map that organizes territory and defines ways of inhabiting space. The publication also examines the enigmatic paintings of the Cueva de las Manos, in Ruropolis (Brazil), which were conceived to remain in darkness, revealing a profound symbolic relationship between space, memory, and ritual.

Yamon rock art - Photo from Paleoamazonia

Beyond its historical value, Paleoamazonia invites readers to understand the Amazon as a living archive of cultural solutions to contemporary challenges. The work proposes reintegrating ancestral knowledge into the global debate on sustainability, territory, and the future, offering lessons that remain highly relevant today.

The publication is produced by La Historia en EY, an organization focused on connecting the business world with a deeper understanding of our past. Its mission is to disseminate historical and cultural heritage as a tool for fostering more informed, aware, and identity-conscious citizens, projecting the richness of our cultural legacy to the world.

*To read this book, go to our Publications page.