About Amazon

The Lost World

Show Schedule

Show Contributors

Show Details

The Americas have seen some of history’s most mysterious and iconic civilisations – from the mountainous Inca of Peru, to the Aztec of Mexico.  But the vast jungles of the Amazon have always been different – a dark, untouched wilderness, home to remote, scattered tribes.  But that turns out to be wrong. Amazon-The Lost World series re-writes the story of the Amazon with astonishing new discoveries and this can be seen on Sundays from 13^th December 2020 at 19:30 on SABC 3.

Right now, we’re discovering that the Amazon was once home to a population of millions with dense settlements and complex societies, stretching back 2000 years.  With brand new archaeology, and imaging technology that uses lasers to “see” beneath the dense jungle canopy, Lost Cities Of The Amazon, reveals this incredible lost world.

We will discover incredible ceremonial Earthworks and explore previously unseen settlements.  We’ll dig for remains of some of the earliest Amazonians, seeking clues to how villages grew, and how the jungle itself was tamed for agriculture on a massive scale.  And we’ll see how these discoveries make sense of long-dismissed stories of a Spanish priest who described incredible cities along the Amazon 500 years ago.

But just where did it all come from?  And when?  Taking intrepid journey’s into dangerous hotspots we’ll seek out a vast cache of ancient rock art with clues to the very first Amazonians over 10,000 years ago and how they survived hunting mammoth-like creatures.  New archaeology reveals how the first settlements developed, and how (far from being a virgin wilderness) the jungle was planted with fruit and nut trees.

Throughout, we’ll be meeting local people today who often hold the clues to the ancient Amazon – from the shape of tribal villages, to unusual genetic roots that question everything we thought we knew about the great human migration into South America.  But the Amazon today is a dangerous place, and its people are under threat as indigenous tribes fight for survival against loggers, gold miners and drug cartels, and while the rainforest itself is destroyed right in front of the world’s eyes.

Tune in and watch how new discoveries in the Amazon will be revealing evidence of a lost civilisation, every Sunday at 19:30 from 13^th December 2020 on SABC 3, “The Stage Is Yours, Own It!”