02/06/2015

Uncovering the Amazon’s Real ‘Lost Cities’

10:10 minutes

A Kuikuro village in the Xingu National Park. Photo by Pedro Biondi/Agência Brasil/CC BY 3.0 BR
A Kuikuro village in the Xingu National Park. Photo by Pedro Biondi/Agência Brasil/CC BY 3.0 BR

This week, the SciFri Book Club concludes its discussion of David Grann’s non-fiction tale of Amazonian exploration, The Lost City of Z. The book recounts the life—and mysterious disappearance—of Victorian explorer Percy Fawcett, who once posited the existence of a lost Amazonian city called “Z.” But was “Z” a real place? And could the harsh Amazonian landscape ever have supported ancient, complex civilizations? Anthropologist Michael Heckenberger studies archaeological sites in the Amazon’s Xingu region, and features in the conclusion of Grann’s tale. He describes the “garden cities” he’s uncovered, suggesting that ancient civilizations once thrived in the Amazon.

Segment Guests

Michael Heckenberger

Michael Heckenberger is author of The Ecology of Power (Routledge, 2004) and an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida.

Meet the Producer

About Annie Minoff

Annie Minoff is a producer for The Journal from Gimlet Media and the Wall Street Journal, and a former co-host and producer of Undiscovered. She also plays the banjo.

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