Archaeologists have uncovered hundreds of vast earthworks in the Amazon rainforest, which they say are evidence of a “lost civilisation” that flourished nearly 2,000 years ago, said New Scientist.

Researchers believe the geometrically patterned structures, known as geoglyphs, were built by an advanced pre-colonial society, known as the Aquiry, between 600BC and AD850 – without metal tools or animals. But they are almost impossible to detect under the dense tree canopy of the deep rainforest.

The scientists used cutting-edge airborne laser scanning technology and found hundreds of previously unknown earthworks. They combined the light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data with previous findings to estimate that there might be up to 30,000 structures across the Aquiry territory.