Archeologists map lost cities in Ecuadorian Amazon, settlements that lasted 1,000 years

 By Christina Larson THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP)- Archeologists have uncovered a cluster of lost cities in the Amazon rainforest that was home to at least 10,000 farmers around 2,000 years ago. A series of earthen mounds and buried roads in Ecuador was first noticed more than two decades ago by archaeologist Stephen Rostain. But at the time, “ I wasn’t sure how it all fit together,” said Rostain, one of the researchers who reported on the finding Thursday in the journal Science. Recent mapping by laser-sensor technology revealed those sites to be part of a dense network of settlements and connecting roadways, tucked into the forested foothills of the Andes, that lasted about 1,000 years. “It was a lost valley of cities,” said Rostain, who directs investigations at France’s National…

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