I DON'T WANT TO WAIT.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

That would be a crazy adventure to go on. Uninhabited lands. Finding strange new structures. Tearing them apart and putting them under glass. Wacky.

One of the interesting thing about Peru and much of Central and South America is that it was once pretty densely populated. It's just thick with ruins.

I know Mexico and Guatemala had huge populations.  I was never sure if South America had huge populations, or just a very, very long history of building & burying.  Thing is, Peru is about perfect for ruins to be preserved in (bodies, too, due to altitude and temperature).

But now that I'm actually thinking about it, some of those ruins would require a HUGE population base, on the order of, say, ancient Egypt, just to keep the logistics train running to build them (farming, foresting, etc), let alone have a functional society alongside the construction.

Yeah, they're realizing now that there were more ruins there than they ever thought, it's just that the rapid and lush vegetation growth, and the moisture, concealed them well and quickly. http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/peru/machu-picchu/inca-ruins-photos/

Yeah, they just found another huge city (in the Yucatan, IIRC) via ground penetrating radar.

So obviously, they're going to be looking elsewhere.  Peru is an obvious choice.  So is the Middle East and the Gobi.

That's neat! I should look that up.

http://www.crewes.org/ResearchLinks/GraduateTheses/2008/Aitken-MSc-2008.pdf

This is some interesting stuff.  Long load time.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That would be a crazy adventure to go on. Uninhabited lands. Finding strange new structures. Tearing them apart and putting them under glass. Wacky.

One of the interesting thing about Peru and much of Central and South America is that it was once pretty densely populated. It's just thick with ruins.

I know Mexico and Guatemala had huge populations.  I was never sure if South America had huge populations, or just a very, very long history of building & burying.  Thing is, Peru is about perfect for ruins to be preserved in (bodies, too, due to altitude and temperature).

But now that I'm actually thinking about it, some of those ruins would require a HUGE population base, on the order of, say, ancient Egypt, just to keep the logistics train running to build them (farming, foresting, etc), let alone have a functional society alongside the construction.

Yeah, they're realizing now that there were more ruins there than they ever thought, it's just that the rapid and lush vegetation growth, and the moisture, concealed them well and quickly. http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/peru/machu-picchu/inca-ruins-photos/

Yeah, they just found another huge city (in the Yucatan, IIRC) via ground penetrating radar.

So obviously, they're going to be looking elsewhere.  Peru is an obvious choice.  So is the Middle East and the Gobi.

That's neat! I should look that up.

http://www.crewes.org/ResearchLinks/GraduateTheses/2008/Aitken-MSc-2008.pdf

This is some interesting stuff.  Long load time.

Very cool, thanks!

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

I looked it up and apparently it's an uninhabited region. Crazy.

Was it always, or did That Thing That Tends To "Happen" To Indigenous Peoples happen?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I looked it up and apparently it's an uninhabited region. Crazy.

Was it always, or did That Thing That Tends To "Happen" To Indigenous Peoples happen?

I don't think there are any known ruins there, but it's very heavily vegetated and it's part of what was once a pretty populous region, so I would guess that there were once people there.