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8-Mile ‘Canvas’ Filled With Ice Age Beasts Discovered Hidden In Amazon Rainforest

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3 years ago

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Dec 14, 2020 04:10pm EST

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Mark Andrew

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Paintings dating back to the last ice age were discovered in the Amazon rainforest.
The interesting discovery depicted images of extinct animals and showed how people back then “hunted giant herbivores, some of which were the size of a small car,” according to archaeologists.

An amazing ancient ‘canvas’ filled with artwork of extinct animals has been discovered in the Amazon rainforest. According to a study, the illustrations date back to the Ice Age and were drawn using a primitive red pigment called ochre.

The detailed art covered about 8 miles of rock on the hills of rock shelters. Now experts are analyzing it and giving it a closer look.

The paintings depicted different animals such as bats, deer, serpents, and monkeys, along with mastodons and giant sloths.

Mark Robinson, a University of Exeter archaeologist and co-researcher of the study, said that the “incredible images” were made by “the earliest people to live in western Amazonia.”

He also added:

“The paintings give a vivid and exciting glimpse into the lives of these communities.
“It is unbelievable to us today to think they lived among, and hunted, giant herbivores, some which were the size of a small car.”

Meanwhile, a LiveScience article further tells us that “indigenous people likely started painting these images at the archaeological site of Serranía La Lindosa, on the northern edge of the Colombian Amazon, toward the end of the last ice age, about 12,600 to 11,800 years ago.”

Scientists started excavating the rock shelters in 2017 after the 2016 peace treaty between the Colombian government and guerilla group FARC.

Study co-researcher José Iriarte, also an archaelogist from University of Exeter, likewise pointed out:

“These rock paintings are spectacular evidence of how humans reconstructed the land, and how they hunted, farmed and fished. It is likely art was a powerful part of culture and a way for people to connect socially.”