Interesting story about “The Lost City of Z”, a book about exploration for the lost civilizations of the Amazon. The article focuses on Percy Fawcett who disappeared in the Amazon jungle in 1925, but it gives a good overview on how the scholarship on the Amazon has changed over the years to point where Fawcett’s once dismissed theories are starting to look more and more real. Well, not all of his theories, his racial theories are still pretty out there, but there is a growing body of evidence that the Amazon may well be the site of many significant civilizations who were seed civilizations for most of South America ten thousand years ago.

One thing I always find depressing in these stories is that everyone mentioned is usually a US based professor. I have to suspect that there is work being done on these topics in South America itself, but it never seems to turn up. I am not sure if this is because it is easier to call someone in Ohio then in Lima but it makes me suspect we are only seeing part of the picture.

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