Laser mapping reveals oldest Amazonian cities, built 2500 years ago. Neighborhoods, farms, and roads are 1000 years older than previous discoveries.

“Lidar, which allows researchers to see through forest cover and reconstruct the ancient sites below, “is revolutionizing our understanding of the Amazon in pre-Columbian times,” says Carla Jaimes Betancourt, an archaeologist at the University of Bonn who wasn’t involved in the new work. Finding such an ancient urban network in the Upano Valley highlights the long-unrecognized diversity of ancient Amazonian cultures, which archaeologists are just beginning to be able to reconstruct.”

by Lizzie Wade

As published in Internazionale

This is the special end-of-year issue of Le Monde des Livres. 

«Which book do you like to give the most? » Sixteen writers, intellectuals and artists reveal the work they like to share the most.

The issue is fully illustrated.

Here is the article.

The protagonist talks about the wonderful atmosphere of the Svitávka library.

The article gives a sense of fullness and envelopment that the library and its books give to readers.

The first image represents the library as a sort of  internal place and a state of mind. The second one is the love that young readers have for books, love that the author found in her meetings.

By Markéta Pilátová

As published in Internazionale.

Nature staged through the centuries and new representations. Between folklore and narrative innovation.

Cover and Dossier illustrations as pubblished by Hystrio magazine

Expand the space and find more  to grow, by Marie-Laure Durand.

as published in Panorama magazine

I was very emotional reading the words of the Icelandic writer Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir.
In his article for Internazionale he described a sensation that I often feel when recently I witness an exceptional show or visit a new place or meet a person who fascinates me. The awareness of not being able to repeat that experience and the certainty of not being able to experience it like the first time.

“But above all, if the language in which I write disappears, the only language I know that uses the same word (heima and heimur) to indicate home and world disappears.”

by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir

as published in Internazionale

Bucolic fairytales are a threat to life on Earth.

“Real solutions to our global food crises are neither beautiful nor comforting. […]

The answer is not more fields, which means destroying even more wild ecosystems. It is partly better, more compact, cruelty-free and pollution-free factories. Among the best options, horror of horrors, is a shift from farming multicellular organisms (plants and animals) to farming unicellular creatures (microbes), which allows us to do far more with far less.” 

By George Monbiot

As published in Internazionale.