Deep in the Amazon forest of Brazil, archaeologists have found a network of 1,000-year-old towns and villages that refutes two long-held notions: that the pre-Columbian tropical rain forest was a pristine environment that had not been altered by humans, and that the rain forest could not support a complex, sophisticated society. A 15-mile-square region at the headwaters of the Xingu River contains at least 19 villages that are sited at regular intervals and share the same circular design. The villages are connected by a system of broad, parallel highways, Florida researchers reported in yesterday's issue of Science. The Xinguano people who occupied the area not only built the complex towns but also dramatically altered the forest to meet their needs, clearing large areas to plant orchards and cassava while preserving other areas as a source of wood, medicine and animals. Researchers have theorized for 10 to 20 years that such societies were possible in Amazonia, said archaeologist Jim Petersen of the University of Vermont, "but this is the first proof."

The new findings are a crucial part of "a growing body of evidence that Amazonia could support reasonably large villages and complex societies," added archaeologist Robert Carneiro of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The region today is composed primarily of small villages with populations of fewer than 150 people, each of which is independent of other settlements.

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