Researchers Finally Know What The Motifs Painted On These Ancient Rocks In The Amazon Rainforest Mean
The area of Serranía de la Lindosa, a 12-mile-long sandstone outcrop in Colombia, contains thousands of rock art motifs that record the history and beliefs of the Amazon’s Indigenous peoples.
Aided by Indigenous elders and ritual specialists, archaeologists have been able to finally document the ancient rock art at six of the sites from the Amazon rainforest after nearly a century of political unrest and geographical barriers that made the art inaccessible.
“The rock art here is arguably the best in the world,” said Jamie Hampson, the lead author of the study and an archaeologist from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom.
“We do not know for sure how old the images at La Lindosa are, but it is possible that some were painted 11,000 or 12,000 years ago, shortly after people first arrived in the Colombian Amazon.”
The Indigenous groups now living in the region speak Tukano, Nukak, Desana, Jiw, and other languages. It is likely their ancestors created the art.
There may even be Indigenous groups near La Lindosa who have kept up the tradition and are still painting today.
The rock art motifs feature are painted with ochre and include depictions of hundreds of human figures, animals, plants, mythological creatures, and geometric shapes.
For most of the past 100 years, research activities in the region have been limited. It wasn’t until the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and FARC revolutionaries that conducting archaeological research in the remote area was made possible.
Now, after six years of field investigations, researchers have uncovered the meaning and significance of the artwork.
evagattuso – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only – pictured above a Toucan sits in the Amazon
They learned that the paintings were not a literal record of what the artists observed around their environment at the time.
Instead, the rock art portrays ritualized negotiations with spiritual realms, highlighting the connection between the human and supernatural worlds. Several scenes illustrated people transforming into animals and even plant/animal hybrids.
Ten Indigenous elders and ritual specialists accompanied the researchers to six rock art sites at the Cerro Azul outcrop of the La Lindosa and provided insight into the art. Many of the motifs remain deeply symbolic today.
“Examples are depictions—or better, manifestations—of animals that inhabit liminal spaces and transcend realms, for example, herons, which fly in the air, walk on the land, and dive under water,” Hampson said.
“This is akin to a ritual specialist or pajé transforming and visiting the spirit world in order to perform certain activities for the good of the group. As in many other parts of the world, there are also powerful ‘therianthropes’—i.e. half-human, half-animal beings.”
The collaboration with Indigenous elders allowed the researchers to fully understand the spiritual importance of the art.
Without the local knowledge, the interpretations of the art would not have been accurate. It also showed that Indigenous belief systems and myths must be taken seriously.
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