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Less than a week ago, the British channel Channel 4 caused great expectations when it announced the broadcast of a documentary about an unprecedented find in the Colombian Amazon, which will be broadcast in the coming weeks
The audiovisual production is part of the series Mystery in the jungle: the lost kingdoms of the Amazon, conducted by Ella Al-Shamahi, British paleoanthropologist and National Geographic explorer.
According to different media and information agencies, in one of the chapters of his series, Al-Shamahi would present the records of rock art (cave paintings) that would account for the coexistence, without previous records, of humans with extinct megafauna of 12,600 years ago, in the times of the last Ice Age.
(Also read: Rock art from the Ice Age discovered in Serranía La Lindosa)
Among the figures drawn with striking red tints would be what appear to be giant sloths (scientifically known as Megatherium), equines, monkeys, and even bats.
The truth is that the finding reported in the documentary was made by scientists who are members of Last Journey, a project that seeks to decipher, from different scientific disciplines such as geology, paleontology, anthropology and archeology, the processes by which the first humans They came to populate the Amazon rainforests. This project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and different Colombian and British academic institutions participate in it.
The discovery was originally disclosed in a study published in the journal Quaternary International in April this year. Its authors are the researchers Gaspar Morcote-Ríos, from the National University of Colombia; Francisco Javier Aceituno, from the University of Antioquia; José Iriarte and Mark Robinson, from Exeter University (United Kingdom), and Jeison L. Chaparro, from the National University.
In the document, entitled ‘Colonization and early settlement of the Colombian Amazon during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene: new evidence from the La Lindosa mountain range’, the scholars give an account of the findings made during a series of expeditions in the department of Guaviare in 2018.
At that time, accompanied by a local guide, They found three new panels with paintings and made excavations that led them to find two ‘stratified sites’, that is to say, traces of buried archaeological material. All this in an area known as Limoncillo and Cerro Montoya.
This is how the researcher Aceituno explains: “What there are are some paintings that we propose as a potential extinct megafauna. This megafauna appears registered both in panels that had already been registered some time ago in the La Lindosa mountain range, for example, in Cerro Azul, and in the new panels.
(We recommend: The indigenous person who protects orphaned monkeys in the Amazon jungle)
“As we pointed out in the scientific article, the radiocarbon dates and the excavations indicate that these representations date from 12,600 years ago, but there are also more recent dates, between 7,000 and 8,000 years ago,” he says.
According to the expert, what these paintings would indicate is that Humans could have lived with the aforementioned animals, but this could only be confirmed if they later find fossil records that prove it.
Jeison Chaparro, from the National University, adds that the finding is part of a series of research projects led by professors from various disciplines, advanced since the 80s and in which not only the cave paintings of La Lindosa have been reported, but human settlements in the past.
The thousands of images are among the oldest representations of people interacting with the huge creatures, including mastodons
“Cave paintings are by far a striking subject in this region and, therefore, one of the most studied. In fact, several researchers have reported other new panels with pictographs in the La Lindosa region, which have yet to be studied, ”says Chaparro, who comments that his project began in 2014 with the participation of students from a research hotbed. , who worked under the mentorship of Professor Gaspar Morcote-Ríos, at the Institute of Natural Sciences of the National University of Colombia, at the Cerro Azul site.
“The first excavations were made in 2015 in Cerro Azul with a budget from the National University of Colombia. An article was written about this that was published in 2017. That same year the second season of excavations was carried out at the same site with a budget from the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History (Icanh). There the University of Antioquia is integrated.
“In 2018, the University of Exeter, England, was involved, where the new archaeological sites of Cerro Montoya and Limoncillos were identified,” he adds.
For Chaparro, the results of these investigations are very important for the study of the settlement of the Colombian Amazon, not only because of the data of the very old potential human presence of the last Ice Age, but also because of the evidence found of consumption of plants and animals that can give clues about the diet of these populations.
And not only that: “This evidence allows us to answer questions from How was the settlement of the forests, the adaptation of these and the resources that the first humans of the region had to use to incorporate themselves into these forests”Says Chaparro.
(You may be interested in: ‘Star of Bethlehem’ can be seen again in the sky after 800 years)
‘Locals hope this discovery will bring tourism’: Ella Al-Shamahi
Although the discovery dates back to 2018 and the scientific text to April this year, it was the Channel 4 documentary, from the United Kingdom, which made widely known in the last week the work of the scientists who came to this place in Guaviare.
Ella Al-Shamahi spoke with EL TIEMPO about the making of the documentary and the importance of the place.
There are many rock art sites in the Lindosa, including the Cerro Azul tourist site, but this is a new and significant site.
Cerro Azul Tepuy -La Lindosa. LastJourney
Why did you decide to make a documentary about this site? What was it that caught your attention?
There are many rock art sites in the Lindosa, including the Cerro Azul tourist site, but this is a significant new site – a name has not yet been given. The team that found this new site is a mixed team of British, Colombian and South American archaeologists
It is not uncommon to find new rock art sites in areas known for rock art. It is like finding a new pyramid in a region known for pyramids in the jungle or finding a new mummy in an Egyptian pyramid. But this is significant because researchers think it is the most important rock art site in Lindosa and larger than nearby sites like Cerro Azul.
Some have said that this site was already known, that it is not new …
To say that this site is not new and that it was known is incorrect. Even the local community doesn’t seem to know about it. The team asked the locals and none of them were aware of him. The indigenous people who used to live there would have known it, but as they know, it is an area that was highly populated by the Farc, so there are few indigenous people left in that exact area. It is possible that some people know the place and others that have not been documented, if they do it is amazing and they should contact the archaeologists who can study them.
Has your team continued investigating in the same area?
We are a television program informing and celebrating this new find, as well as the other known sites in Lindosa (we visited Cerro Azul). But we weren’t involved in finding it originally.
Like many conflict-ridden places, they have fewer people looking for new finds there; which means that these are the places where the great discoveries will come in the future. As Colombia opens up, we look forward to more and more incredible discoveries.
(You can continue reading: Scientists decipher the origin of a rare space object)
Rodent pictograms.
There are people who say that the exact location should not be published so that they do not damage something so valuable …
When we spoke with the locals they were happy and they hope it brings tourism. Cerro Azul is already a tourist place and so far I think the way they interact with it has been good. There is always a balance between protection and education and celebration. This decision must be made jointly by the researchers and the community.
SCIENCE WRITING
TIME@TimeofScience
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