Incredible eight-mile wall of prehistoric paintings
- Published
The discovery of this wall art was actually made last year but has been kept a secret because a documentary was being filmed about them. The drawings were found by a British-Colombian team, funded by the European Research Council.
This is a painting of a mastodon which is an ancient relative of the elephants we know and see today. Team leader José Iriarte said: "We started seeing animals that are now extinct. The pictures are so natural and so well made that we have few doubts that you’re looking at a horse, for example."
It hasn't been confirmed who made the drawings but some people think they could have been made by migrants from Siberia who crossed the Bering Land Bridge nearly 17,000 years ago, during the ice age this land bridge stayed largely untouched because snowfall was very light.
Ella Al-Shamahi, an archaeologist and explorer said: "The site is so new, they haven’t even given it a name yet." The team are planning to return to the site as soon as COVID restrictions allow them.
Some of the drawings are so high up you need a drone to see them!
Some of the paintings even show the hands of the people who made them. The paintings were found on cliff faces of the Chiribiquete National Park, Columbia.
- Published14 April 2020
- Published22 June 2020
