The Rock Art of Serrania De La Lindosa

Within Southeast Colombia's Orinoco River basin, a series of massive rocky sandstone mesas, called tepuis, rise up from the dense humid jungle. Since ancient times the cliffs of these mountains were important cultural sites. They served as shelters, navigational way points, communal gathering sites, and as giant canvases for their rock art, for early inhabitants to communicate their mythologies, histories, and exploits. One such stretch of these tepuis, La Serranía de la Lindosa, contains some of most extensive and elaborate rock art sites in the world, and may also be among the earliest within the Americas. Just how early this rock art is dated to is still a matter of debate, as will be explored in detail further below. These paintings help to illustrate the experience of early hunter gatherers within the South American continent, providing a rare window into these early people's non-material culture. Not only is this area rich in archeological history, it's also an ecological haven for Neotropic wildlife, part of Amazonia's broader radiation of species, which are frequently depicted in the rock art. Some of the pictographs here may even show encounters between humans and now extinct megafauna, although that too is another contentious topic.

Sections

• Background & Tourism
• Nuevo Tolima
• Cerro Azul
• Raudal Angosturas
• Archeological Interpretation
• Depictions of Megafauna?
• Magic, Myth & Meaning
• Sources

Background & Tourism

Reporting upon Serranía de la Lindosa began to rapidly spread throughout international media in 2020 when a British television network began publicizing their new documentary “Jungle Mystery: Lost Kingdoms of the Amazon.” Newspapers and magazines around the world recycled similar overly-sensationalized promotional marketing copy from the same press release, declaring that the “Sistine Chapel of the Ancients,” with 12,000-year-old rock art stretching over eight miles, had been newly “discovered.” While this made for good click-bait, unfortunately these claims were somewhat misleading. These rock art panels are indeed large compared to most other rock art sites in the Americas, with the largest panel spanning 300 ft. But while the Serranía de la Lindosa range itself does stretch about eight miles, the sites themselves are scattered across large distances, with most found within three primary sites: Cerro Azul, Nuevo Tolima, and Raudal Angosturas. Other smaller, lesser-known sites include Cerro Montoya 1, Limoncillos, and Casita de Piedra, some of which are still undergoing excavations by researchers.

Most of these sites were not newly discovered, including the largest panels presented in international media as if they were new discoveries. Apart from the indigenous people of this region, who have likely been visiting these sites for millennia, Europeans first mapped this area in the early 19th century. The famed explorer, Richard Schultes, then wrote of this rock art in 1943. Reports from this area continued for decades, including reports by Alain Gheerbrant in 1952 (Gilreath & Hedges, 2020). Archeology excavations subsequently began here in the 1980s. Judith Trujillo Téllez, who has been involved with excavations with Grupo de Investigación de Arte Rupestre (GIPRI) since 2017, expressed her frustrations at the media coverage that claimed it as a new discovery: “…the documentary they are preparing and announcing with a scandalous, exaggerated, imprecise and baseless title”… “records of some of the murals have been in place since 1948 (Gheerbrant) and new ones continue to appear. As the investigations have been carried out by people who speak Spanish and the reports appear in Spanish .... it is as if they did not exist !!!! Europe is still discovering America.”

And while there is evidence of some pictographs dating back to 12,000 years, it's almost certain that not all are of that age. These corrections should in no way take away from the grandeur of these paintings, but do highlight some of the problems with how commercially driven media tends to report upon archeology. It's important to separate the marketing goals of media companies verses the scientific papers of the researchers, where it's generally more reliable to go back to the original source material.

Although these rock art sites themselves aren't new discoveries, for decades this region has been challenging to access for travelers and researchers. Back in the 1960s, Colombia's right-leaning government had been fighting a guerrilla uprising of the FARC rebels following the assassination of elected left-wing leaders. After years of negotiations, a peace treaty was reached in 2016. Following that agreement, the formerly FARC-held territory throughout Colombia began to open up to outsiders again, with the Serranía de la Lindosa becoming more accessible to research and tourism.

While the war is now over, remnant tensions with some former FARC members remain. Some of them have turned to the illicit drug trade, growing marijuana and coca in the surrounding jungle. In response, the military has been increasing its presence here, with the aim of restoring security, and to help promote tourism and commerce. Soldiers are stationed with machine guns at checkpoints leading into the main city, San Jose de Guaviare, with some camps on the outskirts of town. My guide explained that there were more here than typical, since there was an election approaching, and they're taking precautions against terrorist attacks on political candidates or at voting stations.

I share this history not to discourage those wanting to visit this area, as overall it was a fascinating trip, and one that I would highly recommend to those experienced with travelling Latin America. While I did hear some warnings about this part of Colombia prior to coming here, my impression was that the tourist routes are safe when accompanied with a local guide, and the people were generally warm and welcoming. And for those considering visiting the region, I would, however, suggest having at least intermediate Spanish language skills, as English speakers are very rare in this part of Colombia. The Guaviare region is off the beaten track, not typically included within Colombia itineraries. But it does feel like an untapped gem, one which has a lot of potential to become an eco-tourism hotspot, with a rich cultural history and wildlife viewing opportunities rivaling what I've seen within other spots in the Amazon Basin. And the local community sure could benefit from increased tourism revenue.

At the time of my trip, in 2023, there was very little information online about how to visit the rock art, so I'm including some information about each of them below for would-be travelers, before discussing the archeological interpretation further. During my time here I visited all three of the largest sites: Cerro Azul, Nuevo Tolima, and Raudal Angosturas. Each is unique. They all require local interpretive guides to view the paintings, so visiting will need to be coordinated in advance with a local tour company, not as independent hikes (nor would that be a good idea to attempt solo due to some of the local wildlife). If you're travelling here primarily for the archeology, you may need to arrange a customized trip to also visit the other locations, as all the pre-arranged package tours I saw only visited one of the sites.

Nuevo Tolima

Nuevo Tolima is the closest of these rock art sites to the city, about 45 minutes' drive southwest of San Jose De Guaviare. It contains one of the more elaborately painted rock art panels, but it's also relatively small. Often this is the only site that is included with tours to Guaviare. Nuevo Tolima is on the southern side of the Serranía de la Lindosa, which isn't along the same highway as the route to the other two sites. Other attractions in this area include the Los Pozos Naturales (natural swimming holes), Túneles Naturales (natural tunnels), and Ciudad de Piedra (stone city), which are all examples of the region's unique geology. We also visited a nearby section of tropical rainforest, in an unsuccessful attempt to spot a rare bird found in northeastern South America, named the Guianan cock-of-the-rock. However, we did have a close encounter with a mother peccary and her half-dozen piglets.

Cerro Azul

The largest site, Cerro Azul (Blue Hill), contains seven panels across three levels of cliffs. This was unplanned, but I happened to be here during a solar eclipse. As we climbed the mountain, troops of howler and squirrel monkeys moved through the canopy. The sounds of the forest were full of their howls and the calls of tropical birds. As the sky began to darken, the forest fell into an eerie silence.

Towards the top of the mountain, we turned on head lamps and entered a long cave. As we moved deeper inside, colonies of bats began to take flight and flapped around our heads. We exited the cave on the other side of the mountain, emerging amongst a panel of rock art. My guide explained that the cave had special spiritual significance for those tribes who once inhabited in area. Indigenous cultures of this region have historically viewed caves and the ground as being representative of an underworld, from which life comes and to where their ancestors have returned. She pointed out a pictograph that was believed to represent the cave, and the thick layer of red at the bottom of most of the panels has been interpreted as depict the underworld.

Raudal Angosturas

After spending the night at a small farm stay near the trailhead at Cerro Azul, we got an early start heading to Pinturas de Raudal the following morning. After descending down a rocky dirt road, we arrived at the tiny river-side village of Raudal Guayabero for breakfast, before heading upriver in a narrow river boat. As we navigated through the rapids, dozens of dinner plate-sized river turtles slid down the rocks into the water, and large herons, hunting fish from the rocky shores, took flight up towards the surrounding cliffs.

We landed on the riverbank Raudal Angosturas and headed up the mountain into the jungle. A large troop of surprisingly tame Woolly Monkeys fed upon palm fruit overhead. We climbed the mountain until reaching a single long rock art wall. Pictographs showed aquatic creatures, such as turtles, caiman, and anaconda… and also tall creatures with long necks and long dangling noses (possibly extinct megafauna? discussed below). We continued to scramble up the rocks, through a narrow slot canyon, up to the overlook on top of a mesa covered in exotic looking bromeliads. While the rock art here may not have equaled that of Cerro Azul, of the three sites I had visited, this one felt the most wild and remote.

Archeology & Interpretation

What can then be known of the people who once occupied the Serranía de la Lindosa? We have many clues, not only from the thousands of pictographs they left behind, but also from the archeological debris of daily living found in the sediment below the cliff walls. The paint used to create this art is primarily colored by ochre pigment (iron oxide). There is a long history of early people using this for well over a hundred thousand of years throughout the Paleolithic period. Ochre has also been used across the globe as a body paint, to ward off insects, and in burials to decorate the bodies of the dead. They used ochre in various hues, from yellow to red, grinding it into a powder, mixing it with water to create paint.

Through excavations, researchers were able to determine when these sites were first occupied, and when they began to be painted. A team from Colombia did radiocarbon testing of digs at three different rock art sites in the area. All three had similar results, with secure dating back to 12600-11800BP (although Cerro Azul had charcoal dating to 20k BP). Ochre was found in these early sediment layers (Morcote-Ríos et al., 2020). The site was first occupied 12,000 years ago (based on seeds, bone, and charcoal), and some of these excavations reveals both ochre used for painting and fragments of rock that had fallen into the earliest occupied layers of sediment, indicating that the earliest paintings may date back that far (Morcote-Rios et al, 2020).

This doesn't, however, mean that all the paintings are this old. Rather it only marks the earliest date that they likely began. Some skeptics of that early dating ask how would these paints not wash off after thousands of years of exposure to the elements? Guides at Cerro Azul explained that the ochre used here was mixed with plant resin to act as a binding agent and to help with its preservation. Perhaps this is similar to how amber from tree sap can preserve an insect in time for millions of years? It's also worth noting that those panels protected by overhangs were better preserved, whereas a number of panels more exposed to wind and rain have faded. They also claimed that more recent painting, some made on top of the older artwork, that didn't use the same ochre and sap mixture. Unfortunately, ochre itself isn't an organic compound, so generally can't be radiocarbon tested. But if this paint truly does contain sap, could it still be carbon dated? If not, other new techniques might be able to be used in future studies, such as dating wasp and termite nests that were created on top of the rock art.

Although it's not yet known when each of the paintings were added, they do still provide a rare window into how these early hunter gatherer cultures interacted with their environment. Both the images and excavations point towards a broad-spectrum diet, indicated by the bones of small animals, palms, and fruits. Seeds of the yopo plant were also found, which is a psychedelic plant, ground up and snorted, still used ritualistically by tribal shamans throughout the Amazon. Geometric designs painted on these walls, spirals, and other repeating patterns, may be representative of visions seen during these hallucinogenic states (The Painted Forest, 28).

Further insight into their spiritual beliefs can be drawn from the overall layout of the artwork. The panels are often separated into three distinct levels. As previously mentioned, a thickly painted dark red lower layer is understood to represent the ground and their underworld. The middle layer represents the terrestrial realm, containing various images of their lives, with various forms of animals, scenes or hunting and fishing, and patterns portraying weaved baskets and nets, or of elemental forces like the sun and water. Some of these symbols bear resemblance to imagery known to be made by indigenous people in more recent times, where anthropologists have helped to decipher their meaning. Stick figures of humans look upwards with arms raised, in what may be symbolic of worship. Then high up on the sheer cliff walls, some as high as ten meters, and images widely separated from lower paintings, are thought to depict the spirits of deceased ancestors and other deities. How did they reach so high upon these sheer cliff walls? Paintings at various sites show what human figures climbing a ladder or palm trunks, indicating how they painted the upper cliff walls. Other images show what appear to be people falling out of trees, perhaps showing the dangers inherent in attempting to draw these highest paintings.

Depictions of Megafauna?

While the interpretation of rock paintings such as these is somewhat subjective, some researchers at Serranía de la Lindosa have hypothesized that it provides evidence for co-existence and hunting of megafauna (Iriarte et al., 2022). If true, that would point towards the early dating of these paintings, since these creatures died out within a few thousand years of these sites first being occupied. The climate during that period was cooler and drier, and the equatorial tropical jungle was considerably smaller than it is today. This region consisted more of scrubland and savanna, habitat associated with megafauna like giant sloths and horses. Although no megafauna bones have yet been found in close association with these sites, most of the megafauna depicted have been found in the wider area during the late Paleolithic and early Holocene period, including evidence of human predation on mammoths, gomphotheres, and giant sloths found at numerous sites (Iriarte et al. 2022; Bryan et al. 1978). If they were hunting megafauna, those were likely butchered at the kill site due to their size, consistent with evidence from other megafauna kill locatiions, rather than carrying heavy bones back to their dwelling sites.

Two of the most compelling potential megafauna images are of what's hypothesized to be a giant sloth. Extinct giant sloths, such as Megatherium americanum, did survive into the Holocene period until at least ~8,000 years BP (Hubbe et al., 2007). So, there was an overlap between them and humans occupying this region. The animal in one of the pictographs is pictured with long claws, a large head, forearms longer than hind-limbs, and with its baby. It also appears to show the hands tilted inwards, similar to how sloths and their xenarthran relatives walk on the sides of their hands, due to their long, hooked claws. It is pictured next to much smaller-sized humans. A second picture next to this image shows a man throwing a spear into an animal of similarly large proportions, illustrating that the human is being pictured relation to the animal (not that hunters don't sometimes exaggerate the size of their prey). The human figures in both pictures are of about the same relative height to the alleged sloth.

Others contend that rather than a giant sloth, this may depict a capybara or Andean spectacle bear. It doesn't resemble a capybara to me. An Andean bear could be plausible, as they are also found from in Colombia and Venezuela. And it appears that the animal in these pictures are missing tails, which giant sloths did have, while the spectacle bear does not have a noteable tail. I am including both interpretations so the reader can come to their own conclusions.

Raudal Angosturas has three images of tall animals with elongated hanging noses. Their body proportions, exhibiting long legs and tall vertical necks, don't seem to suggest that these are tapir, a native species that does have a prehensile proboscis (small trunk). Tapir are featured in other pictographs elsewhere, such as at Cerro Azul, but they show more accurate proportions, with shorter legs and a more horizontal neck and head. Some have suggested that these Raudal Angosturas pictographs rather depict Macrauchenia, an extinct megafauna ungulate species. The large nasal openings at the top of the skull of this species suggests that they may also have had a tapir-like proboscis. However, Macrauchenia fossils have only been found further south within South America, not yet this far north within Colombia. But there have been fossils of a close relative, Xenorhinotherium, found within this northern part of South American, including nearby Venezuela, dating to near this period (Carlini et al, 2010; Villavicencio Figueroa et al., 2016). Other Xenorhinotherium fossils have been found in eastern Brazil, which, like Serranía de la Lindosa, was also hotter and drier, suggesting that it was more adapted to these climates than Macrauchenia (de Oliveira et al., 2020).

Another pictograph from Nuevo Tolima shows what may be a camelid species. Researchers suggest that it could be an extinct Palaeolama or Hemiauchenia (Iriarte et al. 2022). They note that the image shows shorter front legs, which is more characteristic of wild South American camelids than the longer front legs typical of domesticated llamas. While the claim that it may be a camelid doesn't seem implausible, I don't see why they aren't proposing that it could be a guanaco or vicuña, two surviving species that have similar morphology.

There are additional potential megafauna pictographs that I wasn't able to visit, since they're located at less accessible sites. The first is an image of what looks like a horse, located high up on a Cerro Azul cliff edge. Researchers argue that the convex shape of the head and stockier legs are characteristic of the extinct paleolithic species that existed within the Americas at the time. Horses then became extinct within South America roughly 8-5k years ago, before being reintroduced by Europeans (Villavicencio et al., 2019; Coltorti et al., 2012;). The counter argument here is that this is a much later depiction of post-colonial horses, although those have tended to be depicted with riders in other art sites.

Lastly, at another location on the western side of Serranía de la Lindosa, it has been suggest that one of the pictographs may show a proboscidean (a relative of modern elephants), possibly a gomphothere such as natiomastadon (Iriarte et al., 2022). Of all the suggested megafauna depicted here, I personally find this one the least convincing, largely because it doesn't even appear to have any legs, and because it has the wrong overall proportions for a gomphothere. Some of these pictographs feel a bit like a rorschach test, where people can project their own meaning upon the shapes they see.

Disagreements over the interpretation of these paintings serve as a reminder of how people can look at the same set of data and reach starkly different conclusions. The meaning of ancient rock art is particularly difficult to reach definitive conclusions from. It's challenging to definitively know what these early artists really intended these images to represent, where even the authors of these studies concede that more study is needed. Do I want these to depict images of megafauna? Yeah, that would be awesome to get confirmation that the people who lived here really were interacting with these giant lost species. But that desire shouldn't weigh upon determining what is in fact the truth. At this point, the best I can say about these pictographs is that the existing evidence is inconclusive, and that perhaps further studies might be able to answer that question more definitely. New dating techniques are, however, being developed that could soon give us new clues to help with the dating of individual paintings, in which case we'd at least know if they were created when those megafauna are known to have still existed. And further excavations, including advancements in detecting traces of animal DNA, may someday confirm if they had been consumed at these sites. I'll be keeping an eye on future research coming from the Serranía de la Lindosa.

Magic, Myth and Meaning

Imagine what it would have been like for the people who lived in this early jungle. What was their interpretation of the physical world they encountered? This was a time before humans had scientific explanations for the nature of reality. How would an eclipse have been perceived without an understanding of the solar system? Or how was a lightning storm explained without knowledge of electricity? How would vibrant sunsets have been understood without knowing how light refracts through earth's atmosphere? Or something as simple as the transformation of water into steam, or of wood into fire? Or how new lives are created on a biological level? How would they have explained such things to their children, or even to themselves?

Try to picture what the inner landscape of the mind must have been like for these early cultures, who had no written language or codified legal system. How would they have interpreted the images seen in dreams? Or during the hallucinations that arose from their use of psychedelic plants? The division between subjective and objective wasn't as clearly delineated. For us modern day people, since the scientific revolution much of the world around us has been explained in more analytical and categorical terms. But in those ancient times there weren't yet concepts like psychology or the subconscious, nor modern notions that segment schools of thought into groupings like religion vs science. The reality in which they lived had a supernatural quality that their mythologies sought to explain. Natural phenomena appeared supernatural. Conception, birth, disease, and death were all shrouded in mystery. And the earth, the land itself in which they resided, was at the center of their subjective reality, orbited by the heavens. Things seemed to occur as if they were guided by magical forces, and by a polytheistic pantheon, where there was a widespread belief in spirits, both of their ancestors and of animals.

It was the elders of each tribe that were seen as the holders of inherited wisdom. All they knew about from where they had come was through a lineage of stories passed down through their ancestors. The memories and teachings of these lost ancestors may have felt as though they were being visited by their spirits. The visions seen in ritualistic ceremonies were taken as the celestial world revealing cosmic truths about the nature of reality. Shamans would navigate this psychological realm of symbolism and metaphor, providing a mythical structure to the world. And through the eons, the early human tribes each developed their own mythologies that attempted to explain the incomprehensible. Each had their own creation stories, how the land was formed, and how their people came about. And as tribes clashed and interbred, their beliefs continued to intertwine and morph, their cultures flowing and changing through time.

Without maps, geographic features such as rivers and mountains would have served as important navigational markers, taking on important cultural and ancestral significance. These were people living in small roaming clans, initially only dependent upon wild foods, who learnt to exploit and shape the forest to their will. The land itself was a fundamental part of their cultural heritage. Their traditions, teachings, and history were all passed down orally, or visually through paintings and carvings upon rock walls such as these. There were no books, no media, no schools, no internet to search for answers. Instead, they had rock art as a long-lasting medium to record their beliefs and stories. The tepuis of Serranía de la Lindosa are some of the best examples we have of these important cultural landmarks within the Americas. Their sacred gathering places now provide us with windows into the ancient past, allowing a rare glimpse into the minds of the original inhabitants of this land.