Rock art in the Colombian Amazon opens a window into the ancient world, revealing a combination of diet, mythology and environmental interaction from more than 12,500 years ago.
Archaeologists studying rock art in the Colombian Amazon have discovered extensive ocher paintings depicting a wide variety of animals and mythological changes in the Cerro Azul cliff, with some sites dating back 12,500 years. The art offers insights into the diet of the ancients in the Amazon, their mythologies and the ecological knowledge they possessed, and emphasizes the complex relationship between man and the environment.
A new study published in the "Journal of Anthropological Archaeology" investigated rock art in the Colombian Amazon, shedding light on the complex relationship between the first settlers of the continent and the animals they encountered.
The Cerro Azul rock cliff in the La Lindosa mountain range contains magnificent ocher paintings of a wide variety of animal species, including depictions of animals and humans that change into each other, demonstrating the rich mythology that guided generations of Amazonian natives. While these images have not yet been precisely dated, accompanying evidence of human activity suggests that they may have been used as galleries for thousands of years, as far back as 10,500 BC.
The research combined a zooarchaeological analysis of animal remains discovered in nearby excavations with the analysis of the artistic descriptions in the rock art. The animal remains revealed a varied diet, including fish, a wide range of small and large mammals, and reptiles such as turtles, snakes and alligators. However, the proportions of the animal bones do not match the proportions of the animals represented in the art, suggesting that the artists did not just paint what they ate.
"These rock art sites include the earliest evidence of human presence in the western Amazon, dating back as far as 12,500 years ago," said Dr Mark Robinson, Associate Professor of Archeology in the Department of Archeology and History at the University of Exeter. "As such, the art offers incredible insights into how settlers The first ones understood their place in the world and how they formed relationships with animals. The context points to the complexity of the Amazonians' relationships with animals, both as a source of food but also as revered creatures, who had supernatural connections and required complex negotiations on the part of ritual experts."
Archaeologists have documented a number of significant rock art sites in the region since the 2016 peace accord between the Colombian government and the FARC paved the way for a safe resumption of scientific studies. Cerro Azul, an isolated hill located near the Guayabro River in the northwestern province of Guayavera, was one of these sites. There, 16 'panels' of ocher paintings were found, some of which were accessible only by strenuous climbing and the use of ropes.
The study, led by researchers from the University of Exeter, the University of Antioquia in Medellin, and the National University of Colombia, focuses on six panels in precise detail. These ranged from the 40m x 10m "El Mas Largo" panel, which included over 1,000 images, to a smaller 10m x 6m panel called "Principal", with some of its 244 images well preserved in color bright red
A total of 3,223 images were recorded using drone photogrammetry and traditional photography. The images were classified according to their form, with figurative images being the most common, accounting for 58% of the total. Over half of them were related to animals. At least 22 different animals have been identified, including deer, birds, warthogs, lizards, turtles and tapirs.
Although fish remains are common in the archaeological finds, their appearance in art is limited to only two panels, in what appear to be fishing scenes. Large carnivores such as the jaguar were conspicuously absent, despite their status as carnivores on art evidence at other sites in Colombia. The researchers speculate that the artists may have been restricted from painting powerful animals like the jaguar. Images of figures that combine human and animal traits reveal a complex mythology of change between human and animal states, which is still present in modern Amazonian communities.
The wide variety of animals represented in the art and the archaeological remains indicate a broad understanding and exploitation of a variety of ecological environments in the region, including savannahs, flooded forests and rivers.
"The indigenous people of Cerro Azul and the surrounding lands hunted and described a wide variety of animals from different ecological zones - from aquatic fish to tree-dwelling monkeys; terrestrial deer to flying birds, both nocturnal and diurnal," said Dr. Javier Aisitono of the University of Antioquia, Medellín "They had detailed knowledge of the different habitats in the area, and they possessed the skills required to track and hunt animals and collect plants from each of them, as part of a broad survival strategy."
"Our approach reveals differences between what the indigenous communities used for food and what is important to represent - and not represent - in art," concludes Professor José Iriarte from the University of Exeter. "Although we cannot be sure what the meaning of these images is, they certainly add another dimension to our understanding of the power of myth in indigenous communities. They particularly reveal cosmological aspects of life in the Amazon, such as what is considered taboo, where power lies, and how negotiations were conducted with the superior -natural"
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"Wart pigs" are African, there are not and never were in America,
"Red deer" is common in Europe and Asia,
Imported to South America by the "Whites"
And it didn't exist there before...