Not now, but a long time ago – in the period before 1492...
Over the past ten years or so, scientists have made a number of discoveries about the broader extent and higher population than previously believed in “pre-historic” Americas. Many of these discoveries have been in South America, particularly in Amazonia. Here's one that is in the United States, giving strong evidence for a civilization there about 3,200 years ago that was capable of mustering thousands of workers to build a large earthworks.
It fascinates me that the evidence of human activity is so difficult to find and interpret, just a few thousand years after the fact. I wonder what people a few thousand years from now will think about, say, the human occupation of Southern California? Our artifacts look so permanent – especially on the time scale of a single human life – but clearly they are not...
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