by We weren’t the first to lay eyes on the carving since it was carved into the hillside hundreds or thousands of years ago, not by a long shot. The Venezuelan archaeologist José Maria Cruxent even recorded it in his diaries in the 1940s – and it certainly had visitors before.
The location of Cerro Pintado (Painted Hill), in the Venezuelan state of Amazonas, is a local landmark and is well known on the itinerary of those traveling on the Middle Orinoco River.
But seeing the huge snake, carved high on the hillside, instantly piqued both our wonder and our scientific curiosity. Why a snake? Why did the creators climb a high granite hill to put it there, just like that? What about all the other engravings being circulated – what do they mean?
All these questions and more swirled around our small group as we stood, sticky and mosquito-bitten, in the savanna at the foot of the hill. It was interesting because of its singular status.
Although there are other examples of massive prehistoric rock art in other parts of the world, these seem to be the biggest. Although, as mentioned, some of them were already known to archaeologists, our team documented others, including across the border in Colombia.
The results show a high concentration of these memorial engravings in the region. Subjects for these symbolic works include snakes, humans and centipedes. The animals probably played an important role in the mythologies of the people who made them. The findings were published in the journal Antiquity.
New sites to survey
When we visited Cerro Pintado in 2015, we thought that the huge 42 meter long snake engraving (probably representing a boa or anaconda, native to the region) alone was amazing. Previous scholars had noted that many rock shelters in the surrounding savanna hosted prehistoric paintings, and we had already seen plenty of engravings near our dig sites.
Although often quite or quite large, none of these sites shared the truly monumental scale of the Cerro Pintado suns. Due to its apparent uniqueness we managed to return with a drone to get better images of the extremely inaccessible panel. Already during the first period in the field, however, we suspected that there was more to be revealed about the rock art of the region.
Our guide, Juan Carlos García, a local educator and photographer, had traveled well around the area, and had plenty of insight to share. Surveying the islands that separate the calm middle course of the Orinoco River from its turbulent upper reaches, he pointed to the Colombian bank and immediately informed us: “Do you see that hill? Over there, behind him, is another snake, as big as Pintado.”
The possibility of another snake was very interesting to us. Was it also accompanied by a series of motifs? Was it really that big and visible from afar? Due to the lack of scientific permits in Colombia, or the time to search for a new site even if we had permits, these questions were left unanswered. After four campaigns in Venezuela, our fieldwork funding ended in 2017 and Cerro Pintado remained, as far as archeology was concerned, a one-and-only site.
Fortunately, the project’s principal investigator, José Oliver, at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, found the means to return to survey the Colombian side in 2018. The results of careful systematic surveys were shared between the team in a large number of text messages and emails. exciting. , declaring that it was not just one more snake, but many more. They were also comparable in size to and clearly related to Pintado, but each had their own twist.
The project’s doctoral candidate, Natalia Lozada Mendieta, of Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia, now an assistant professor, also returned in 2021 and 2022 to find more snakes. Finally, the entire original team reunited in the park in 2023. Together, and with the help of local guides, we compiled a database of 13 massive rock art sites with more than 150 individual engravings between them.
Striking motifs
Snakes were the most striking motifs for us, although giant centipedes, people dancing or playing instruments, and mysterious geometric shapes of an unknown mind failed to impress. Although not unique, as previously thought, Cerro Pintado is now accompanied by a constellation of related sites – a true monumental rock art tradition.
Very large prehistoric petroglyphs, the scientific term for rock engravings, are not known. Whales and moose are depicted in Norwegian Stone Age art, and life-size giraffes and camels are known from Niger and Saudi Arabia, respectively.
Very prominent or visible rock art like this is often taken to convey important ideas or concepts. Although their exact meaning is lost, their influence can be felt through their physicality, meaning their size and location.
In our cases, we are fortunate to note recurring themes across the indigenous cosmologies of northern South America that cite giant serpents as creators and protectors of rivers – including the great “river” in the sky, the Milky Way . But they are also menacing, predatory and deadly.
This information enriches our understanding of the archaeological record. The snakes were meant to be seen from a long distance, which shows a common understanding of the world and its inhabitants. What makes the Middle Orinoco stand out as a unique hotspot, we argued, is the sheer number of these massive pre-Columbian artworks.
They appear to be the largest in the world, and speak to a contested but openly cultural landscape during the pre-Columbian period that we are only beginning to understand.
More importantly, as regional tourism increases year after year, there is a greater need for the protection of the sites, an activity in which indigenous people should have a leading voice. Undoubtedly, there are many more sites in this unique commemorative tradition to be discovered, recorded and, hopefully, preserved.
This article from The Conversation is republished under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Fieldwork, data collection and analysis were funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Grant (RPG-234-2014). Philip Riris received funding from a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (PF2\180065) and a Society of Antiquaries Research Grant. It is currently funded by the AHRC (AH/X002217/1).
Fieldwork, data collection and analysis were funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Grant (RPG-234-2014). José Oliver received funding from the Fundación de Investigaciones Arqueológicas Nacionales-Coloimbia (FIAN-Proyecto 505, 2018).
Natalia Lozada Mendieta received funding from the Centro de Creacion e Investigacion de la Facultad de Artes y Humanidades de la Universidad de Los Andes.
