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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Spotlight.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm Marina Sante and I'm Roger Bassic. Spotlight uses a

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<v Speaker 2>special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people

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<v Speaker 2>to understand no matter where in the world they live.

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<v Speaker 1>The Upano Valley is a place in southern Ecuador. For

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<v Speaker 1>as long as most people can remember, it was covered

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<v Speaker 1>by the Amazon Rainforest. Few people lived there, but the

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<v Speaker 1>forest held a secret. Below the trees was a group

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<v Speaker 1>of cities. No one knew they were there for over

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<v Speaker 1>a thousand years.

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<v Speaker 2>Today's spotlight is on these hidden cities of the Upano Valley.

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<v Speaker 2>A recent discovery. These cities change the way that experts

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<v Speaker 2>see the peoples of the Amazon. They display a special

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<v Speaker 2>culture that is new in the history of the world.

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<v Speaker 1>The cities of the Opano Valley were first discovered in

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<v Speaker 1>late twenty twenty three. Experts knew that there were structures

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<v Speaker 1>in the area, However, they did not know how many

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<v Speaker 1>or how large the structures were. To find out, they

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<v Speaker 1>examined the ground with a technology called lidar. Lidar uses

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<v Speaker 1>late to measure the distance between objects. An airplane can

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<v Speaker 1>examine the ground with lidar. It can make a very

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<v Speaker 1>precise map of what is there.

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<v Speaker 2>The lidar examination showed a large complex of cities. There

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<v Speaker 2>were temples, houses, and roads. The structures were not made

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<v Speaker 2>from stone like the other cities in South America. The

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<v Speaker 2>buildings were dirt hills. Some of these buildings were created

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<v Speaker 2>by moving earth. Some were once hills that the people

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<v Speaker 2>there shaped into structures. The lidar examination discovered over six

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<v Speaker 2>thousand of these structures in the area.

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<v Speaker 1>Experts estimates that these structures are thousands of years old.

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<v Speaker 1>They believe that the culture that builds them lived in

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<v Speaker 1>the area in five hundred BCE. They deserted the cities

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<v Speaker 1>around six hundred CE. This means that the cities were

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<v Speaker 1>in use for one thousand years. This is longer than

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<v Speaker 1>most other cultures in the area, and it is a

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<v Speaker 1>longer time than even the Inca or Maya cultures.

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<v Speaker 2>One of the most interesting parts about these cities is

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<v Speaker 2>their roads. Most roads in ancient times followed the landscape.

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<v Speaker 2>They went around hills because it is easier to build

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<v Speaker 2>that way. But the roads in the Upano Valley are

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<v Speaker 2>perfectly straight. They go over and even sometimes through hills.

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<v Speaker 2>The people there dug some of them as deep as

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<v Speaker 2>five meters. This is a difficult thing to do even today.

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<v Speaker 1>Stephen Roustan is an archaeologist at the National Center for

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<v Speaker 1>Scientific Research in France. An archaeologist is someone who studies

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<v Speaker 1>ancient cultures. He led the studies that discovered the Ipano

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<v Speaker 1>Valley cities. He spoke to the British Broadcasting Cooperation about

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<v Speaker 1>the mystery of these roads.

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<v Speaker 3>Why would you build these straight roads five meters deep?

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<v Speaker 3>You can easily walk through the hills. I think they

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<v Speaker 3>built them to mark their identity. They are symbolic roads.

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<v Speaker 2>The people of the Upano Valley also constructed their cities

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<v Speaker 2>in a unique way. In almost every culture, cities are centralized,

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<v Speaker 2>a concentrated group of people live within closely built structures.

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<v Speaker 2>People who grow food, such as farmers, live outside cities,

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<v Speaker 2>but in the Upano Valley civilization, farms were part of

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<v Speaker 2>the city. Large pieces of farmland separated different home groups,

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<v Speaker 2>but the buildings are still close enough to be called

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<v Speaker 2>a single city. Other civilizations pushed the environment outside of

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<v Speaker 2>their cities, but the people of the Upano Valley built

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<v Speaker 2>their cities within it.

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<v Speaker 1>It is difficult to know what the society of the

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<v Speaker 1>people of the Upanova was like, but evidence suggests that

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<v Speaker 1>they had a complex society. Again, Rastan spoke to the

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<v Speaker 1>British Broadcasting Cooperation about what the people may have been like.

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<v Speaker 3>The people living in these societies did not move around.

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<v Speaker 3>They were not lost in the rainforest looking for food.

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<v Speaker 3>They were not the small tribes of the Amazon we

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<v Speaker 3>know today. They were a highly specialized people. They were

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<v Speaker 3>earth movers, engineers, farmers, fishermen, priests, chiefs or kings. It

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<v Speaker 3>was a layered society. It was a specialized society. It

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<v Speaker 3>was something like ancient Rome.

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<v Speaker 2>This picture of a cultured society is quite different from

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<v Speaker 2>the stereotypes of Amazonian people. Often people portray Native Amazonian

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<v Speaker 2>people as lesser than they are, or they believe that

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<v Speaker 2>they are less intelligent than others because they live by

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<v Speaker 2>hunting and gathering their food. Historians sometimes backed up this

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<v Speaker 2>unfortunate way of thinking because no one found a complex civilization.

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<v Speaker 2>Some did not think these native people capable of one

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<v Speaker 2>people wishing to take native land use this as an excuse,

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<v Speaker 2>but the Upano Valley civilization proves this false. Native Amazonians

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<v Speaker 2>were just as capable of making complex societies as their

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<v Speaker 2>western counterparts, and they did it in a unique way

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<v Speaker 2>that let them.

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<v Speaker 1>We do not know why the people of the Oparo

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<v Speaker 1>Valley deserted their cities. There may have been wars or

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<v Speaker 1>other conflicts, but experts believe it was probably due to

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<v Speaker 1>natural disasters. The Aparno Valley lies below the Sungai volcano.

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<v Speaker 1>The ash from the volcano would have helped the city's

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<v Speaker 1>crops grow quickly, but volcanoes are dangerous to live near.

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<v Speaker 1>A large explosion could have made it difficult to survive there.

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<v Speaker 1>Ash from a large explosion could have made sunlights difficult

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<v Speaker 1>to reach, and it may have killed off crops and

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<v Speaker 1>even changed the climate.

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<v Speaker 2>The discoveries of the cities of the Upano is an

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<v Speaker 2>important scientific discovery. Until recently, experts believed there were no

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<v Speaker 2>large cultures in the Amazon. They believed that the native

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<v Speaker 2>population lived as they do today, as hunters and gatherers.

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<v Speaker 2>This discovery shows that there is a larger history of

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<v Speaker 2>the native population that we have yet to learn. That

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<v Speaker 2>history is more interesting and complex than anyone could have

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<v Speaker 2>understood before.

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<v Speaker 1>The discovery is also important for understanding native culture. It

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<v Speaker 1>shows that the native people of the Amazon could build cities,

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<v Speaker 1>and they were able to do so in a special

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<v Speaker 1>way instead of destroying the land. They created living spaces

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<v Speaker 1>within nature. This may help us understand how to design

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<v Speaker 1>cities in the future. It will be important to listen

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<v Speaker 1>to native leadership when it comes to this. Manari Ushigua

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<v Speaker 1>is a leader from the Sappara Nation. He spoke to

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<v Speaker 1>the Art newspaper about the discovery of the Apparno Valley cities.

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<v Speaker 4>These are holy sites. Protecting them is important. It is

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<v Speaker 4>not just for our communities. These sites are important for

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<v Speaker 4>all humanity. They contain secrets about climate change. These secrets

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<v Speaker 4>can help the Amazonian environment, but they can also help

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<v Speaker 4>the whole planet. We are suffering from the effects of

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<v Speaker 4>unrestrained development and environmental district everywhere, but if we look

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<v Speaker 4>to the forest and these ancient places, we can learn

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<v Speaker 4>a lot.

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<v Speaker 2>Do you know much about the people of the Amazon

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<v Speaker 2>Does this discovery change your opinion? You can leave a

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<v Speaker 2>comment on our website at www dot Spotlight English dot com.

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<v Speaker 2>You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram,

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<v Speaker 2>Spotlight English app.

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<v Speaker 1>The writer of this program was Dan Christman. The producer

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<v Speaker 1>was Mitcheo Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the

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<v Speaker 1>United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted

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<v Speaker 1>for this program and voiced by Spotlight. No AI or

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<v Speaker 1>artificial intelligence was used in this program. Spotlight programs are written, voiced,

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<v Speaker 1>and produced by real people for real people, no matter

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<v Speaker 1>where in the world they live. This program is called

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<v Speaker 1>The City That Rewrote History.

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<v Speaker 2>We hope you can join us again for the next

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<v Speaker 2>Spotlight program. Goodbye,