The Emptied Amazon · source record · paper

Two thousand years of garden urbanism in the Upper Amazon

Stéphen Rostain; Antoine Dorison; Geoffroy de Saulieu; Heiko Prümers; Jean-Luc Le Pennec; Fernando Mejía Mejía; Ana Maritza Freire; Jaime R. Pagán-Jiménez; Philippe Descola · 2024

AI-verified citationSRC-ROSTAIN-2024

identifier / locator: doi:10.1126/science.adi6317
url: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adi6317
verification note: text retrieved and shown to the drafter on 2026-09-17 (run 2026-09-17-draft-pre-columbian-amazon-135349); passages checked by the verify verb
reliability notes: Peer-reviewed research article, Science 383(6679):183–189, January 2024.
Text read from the author-accepted manuscript deposited at archimer.ifremer.fr (open-access copy via OpenAlex); page numbers below refer to that PDF, not the journal pagination.
Primary archaeological study (LiDAR analysis plus two decades of excavation) by the investigating team; interpretive comparisons to Maya, Teotihuacan and Giza are the authors' framing, not measurements.
Funding stated: CNRS, UMR8096, French MAEE, IRD, German KAAK, Ecuadorian INPC, Banco Central del Ecuador, SENESCyT; authors declare no competing interests.

Evidence drawn from this source

Supports· strongAMZ-E073

Rostain 2024: Upano platform and road construction dated ca. 500 BCE to 300/600 CE — part 1

what the source states: Archaeological excavations date the Upano Valley "occupation from around 500 BCE to between 300 and 600 CE".
what we infer: Primary dating by the excavating team (almost 70 radiocarbon dates per the supplement); the end-date is a range, not a point.
limitations: Author-accepted manuscript; the revised sequence is promised in 'a subsequent paper'.

Stéphen Rostain (2024)AI-verified citationAMZ-C061

Supports· strongAMZ-E074

Huapula reoccupation of Upano mounds, 800–1200 CE — part 1

what the source states: Some mounds were "reoccupied after a hiatus by groups of the Huapula culture" between 800 and 1200 CE.
what we infer: Continuity of some occupation into the second millennium at Upano, at lower density; relevant to how long the valley's surfaces were forested before Colonial times.
limitations: Reoccupation extent ('some mounds') not quantified.

Stéphen Rostain (2024)AI-verified citationAMZ-C062

Context· strongAMZ-E075

Huapula reoccupation of Upano mounds, 800–1200 CE — part 2

what the source states: Huapula ceramic is "characterized by decorations based on the corrugated modality using wavy patterns".
what we infer: Continuity of some occupation into the second millennium at Upano, at lower density; relevant to how long the valley's surfaces were forested before Colonial times.
limitations: Reoccupation extent ('some mounds') not quantified.
Direction set to "context" (from "supports") by the second reader (claude-sonnet-5, 2026-09-17, run 2026-09-17-verify-pre-columbian-amazon-140447, verify-v6) at intake: The quoted sentence only describes the corrugated, wavy-pattern decoration typical of Huapula pottery; it does not itself assert that mounds were reoccupied by Huapula groups between 800 and 1200 CE, which is stated elsewhere in the supplement. As such the passage identifies/dates the Huapula culture but does not directly support the reoccupation claim, so it functions as context rather than support.

Stéphen Rostain (2024)AI-verified citationAMZ-C062

Supports· moderateAMZ-E076

Authors' assessment: Upano is the earliest and largest low-density agrarian urbanism documented in Amazonia so far — part 1

what the source states: Other monumental sites of Amazonia are all more recent than the Upano sites and "significantly less dense in terms of features", and, until proven otherwise, not embedded within such a vast and dense communication network.
what we infer: A comparative claim by the discoverers, explicitly time-bounded ('so far'); the Aquiry peak (AD 100–300, AMZ-C004/E003) overlaps its later phase, so 'earliest' depends on definitions of urbanism.
limitations: Authors' interpretive superlative; comparison set is the supplement's four sites.

Stéphen Rostain (2024)AI-verified citationAMZ-C064

Supports· strongAMZ-E115

Rostain 2024: platforms and roads built by groups of the Kilamope and later Upano cultures

what the source states: The main text states that the original building of the earthen platforms and roads "was carried out by groups from the Kilamope and later Upano cultures".
what we infer: Cultural attribution by the excavating team, resting on the stratigraphic sequence it re-examined at the Sangay and Kilamope sites; its supplementary text S2 lists the Kilamope as the first mound builders and says the Upano built earthen mounds and were contemporaneous with or successors of the Kilamope.
limitations: Author-accepted manuscript; the dating sequence behind the attribution "was recently revised and will be presented in a subsequent paper" (supplementary text S2, p. 23).

Stéphen Rostain (2024)AI-verified citationAMZ-C086