Scientists from University College London have made a map of petroglyphs carved into the rocks of Venezuela. Aerial photography from drones helped to bring together data on nearly a hundred giant images, some of which are up to 30 meters in length. The archaeologists published their results in the journal Antiquity.
The rock paintings of Western Venezuela are some of the largest petroglyphs in the world. Most of them are visible only from a bird's eye view. Frequent subjects of these drawings are animals, birds, people, mythological animals and various rituals. For example, one of the “canvases” with an area of about 304 m² depicts at least 93 animal figures, while in another drawing you can see a 30-meter horned snake. Scientists believe that these petroglyphs were created by the aborigines more than two thousand years ago.
All drawings are located in the same area of the state of Amazonas, and often in hard-to-reach places. At the same time, due to fluctuations in the level of the Orinoco River, some drawings are hidden under water for part of the year. Therefore, although they have repeatedly tried to study them before, no one has been able to do this so fully and in detail. The survey was conducted just before the rainy season, when the water level in the Orinoco River was at its lowest, which allowed more petroglyphs to be photographed. According to archaeologists, the figure with the figure of a flutist surrounded by other people depicts a ritual associated with fertility and the change of seasons. The shooting itself was carried out from the air using drones.
Some of the giant cave paintings / Dr. Philip Riris.
Archaeologists believe that, unlike rock art, which could be associated with burial rituals, petroglyphs rather depicted everyday life, travel, emphasized the importance of waterways and the dependence of the local population on the changing seasons. Therefore, petroglyphs of the state of Amazonas can provide a lot of information about life at the junction of several Native American cultures.