![]() Some of the paintings are so high they can only be viewed with drones. Photograph: Marie-Claire Thomas/Wild Blue MediaĪl-Shamahi was struck by how high up many of them are: “I’m 5ft 10in and I would be breaking my neck looking up. View image in fullscreen Many of the paintings are very high up, similar to these at the nearby site of Cerro Azul, some so high they can only be reached by drones. There are numerous handprints and many of the images are on that scale, be they geometric shapes, animals or humans. Scientific discovery is not over but the big discoveries now are going to be found in places that are disputed or hostile.” The territory where the paintings have been discovered was completely off limits until recently and still involves careful negotiation to enter safely.Īl-Shamahi said: “When we entered Farc territory, it was exactly as a few of us have been screaming about for a long time. But it was “100%” worth it to see the paintings, she added.Īs the documentary notes, Colombia is a land torn apart after 50 years of civil war that raged between Farc guerrillas and the Colombian government, now with an uneasy truce in place. “You’re in the middle of nowhere,” she said. They had no choice but to walk past it, knowing that, if they were attacked, there was little chance of getting to a hospital. They had been delayed getting back, and it was already pitch black. “Caimans are everywhere, and we did keep our wits about us with snakes,” Al-Shamahi said, recalling an enormous bushmaster – “the deadliest snake in the Americas with an 80% mortality rate” – that blocked their jungle path. They somehow avoided the region’s most dangerous inhabitants. ![]() The site is so remote that, after a two-hour drive from San José del Guaviare, a team of archaeologists and film-makers trekked on foot for around four hours. One figure wears a mask resembling a bird with a beak. The images include fish, turtles, lizards and birds, as well as people dancing and holding hands, among other scenes. It’s so detailed, we can even see the horse hair. The ice-age horse had a wild, heavy face. The pictures are so natural and so well made that we have few doubts that you’re looking at a horse, for example. “We started seeing animals that are now extinct. It’s going to take generations to record them … Every turn you do, it’s a new wall of paintings. He said: “When you’re there, your emotions flow … We’re talking about several tens of thousands of paintings. Its leader is José Iriarte, professor of archaeology at Exeter University and a leading expert on the Amazon and pre-Columbian history. The discovery was made by a British-Colombian team, funded by the European Research Council. She spoke of the excitement of seeing “breathtaking” images that were created thousands of years ago. Photograph: Marie-Claire Thomas/Wild Blue Media View image in fullscreen There are numerous hand prints among the images on the cliff face, similar to these at the nearby site of Cerro Azul. The documentary’s presenter, Ella Al-Shamahi, an archaeologist and explorer, told the Observer: “The new site is so new, they haven’t even given it a name yet.” The site is in the Serranía de la Lindosa where, along with the Chiribiquete national park, other rock art had been found. The discovery was made last year, but has been kept secret until now as it was filmed for a major Channel 4 series to be screened in December: Jungle Mystery: Lost Kingdoms of the Amazon. Such is the sheer scale of paintings that they will take generations to study. Their pictures give a glimpse into a lost, ancient civilisation. These animals were all seen and painted by some of the very first humans ever to reach the Amazon. There are also images of the palaeolama, an extinct camelid, as well as giant sloths and ice age horses. Their date is based partly on their depictions of now-extinct ice age animals, such as the mastodon, a prehistoric relative of the elephant that hasn’t roamed South America for at least 12,000 years.
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