Parts of ‘uninhabited’ Amazon were once home to up to a million

● New evidence shows hundreds of villages in forest away from river

Parts of the Amazon previously thought to have been almost uninhabited were actually home to thriving populations of up to a million people, researchers say.

Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of hundreds of villages in the rainforest, away from major rivers, that were home to different communities speaking a variety of languages.

It had been assumed that ancient communities preferred to live near these waterways but new research has found this was not the case.

Researchers said the discovery fills a major gap in the history of the Amazon and provides further evidence that the rainforest has been heavily influenced by those who lived in it.

A team from the University of Exeter found the remains of fortified villages and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs – man-made ditches with square, circular or hexagonal shapes.

Some of these earthworks show no evidence of being occupied and it is possible that they were used as part of ceremonial rituals.

Dr Jonas Gregorio de Souza, from the University of Exeter’s Department of Archaeology, said: “There is a common misconception that the Amazon is an untouched landscape,

0 A structure at Jaco Sa in Brazil shows evidence of large-scale populations in an area previously thought to be almost uninhabited