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ments and fanciful prehistoric earthworks depicting people and animals. One anthropomorphic figure measures
more than 2km from head to toe - a rainforest variation on Peru's famed Nazca Lines. The original purpose of the
earthworks was probably to permit cultivation in a seasonally flooded area, but inside the mounds were buried fig-
urines, pottery, ceramic stamps, human remains and even tools made from stone imported into the region.
The discovery of the lomas has caused scientists to look at the Beni region with entirely new eyes: what was
previously considered to be a wilderness never touched by humans, save for a few dispersed tribes who inhabited
the region, is now thought to have been an area where a vast, advanced civilization farmed, worked and lived in a
highly structured society with sophisticated cities.
It is believed that the ceramic mounds came from the large numbers of people who lived on them and who ate
and drank from pots, which were then destroyed and buried to improve soil stability. Archaeologists say that the
sheer amount of pots indicates the complexity of this lost society.
Romantics associate the prehistoric structures of the Beni with the legendary Paititi tribe, and infer that this an-
cient Beni civilization was the source of the popular Spanish legends of the rainforest El Dorado known as Gran
Paititi. The Patiti were said to be an Inca tribe associated with the cultural hero Inkarri who, after founding Cuzco,
retired to the Amazon to found another great but mysterious civilization in an unknown location. Though some
Inca fragments were found in northern Bolivia during excavations in 2003, the Inca origin of the Moxos sites re-
mains doubtful, and the most accepted theory is that if Paititi even existed at all its most likely location is Peru.
Archaeologists continue their research into this fascinating part of history, but one thing is for sure: once you
know what lies here in terms of world history, you'll never look at the forests of the Beni in the same way again.
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