LIDAR technology has done it again. Urban centers that are thought to be 1,500 years old were discovered beneath the greenery of the Bolivian Amazon. Finds include 22-meter-tall earthen pyramids, reservoirs, canals, and kilometers of elevated roadways. We know little about the Casarabe people who lived in the region between 500 and 1400 CE, but it’s clear that their impact was more extensive than previously thought. According to to Jonas Gregorio de Souza, “This is the first clear evidence that there were urban societies in this part of the Amazon Basin.” The article also explores the recent shift away from the belief that Amazonians lived in small, nomadic tribes with little impact on their surroundings until the Spanish arrived.