The rock art is in a region of Colombia that was off-limits to researchers for decades due to political instability.
Recently discovered prehistoric wall drawings illustrate a complex relationship between humans and animals deep in the Amazon rainforest, where creatures were treated simultaneously as a source of food and as a supernatural wonder.
The artwork was made using red ochre pigments on the rock walls of Cerro Azul, a hill located in Colombia’s portion of the Amazon. While the pictures have yet to be accurately dated, they have been made as far back as 10,500 BC, according to new research. The pictures include vivid depictions of deer, birds, lizards, turtles, and tapir, among other animals.
Some of the art appears to show animal-human hybrids. While it’s uncertain exactly what meaning the artists were trying to express, “They certainly do offer greater nuance to our understanding of the power of myths in indigenous communities .They are particularly revealing when it comes to more cosmological aspects of Amazonian life, such as what is considered taboo, where power resides, and how negotiations with the supernatural were conducted.”
The resulting research has shown that societies that lived in this part of the Amazon were mobile and relied on fishing, hunting, and gathering. But the paintings indicate the relationship between those people and the abundant fauna around them extended far beyond just sustenance, including seeing them as supernatural beings that were the subject of rituals.