In addition to political issues, climatic issues were and are also a problem: the dense rainforest makes it difficult to identify potential sites for field research, and the clay and acidic soil quickly decomposes organic remains, which could be an invaluable source of knowledge for archaeologists. Therefore, so far little is known about the earliest times of human settlement in the Amazon basin. That is why the latest research is so valuable from the point of view of knowledge about our ancestors. As Mark Robinson, an associate professor at the University of Exeter and one of the authors of the research, says, quoted on his university’s website:
Until recently, it was believed that the first settlers in these areas appeared about 11.6 thousand years ago, the most optimistic theories said about 12.6 thousand years. Meanwhile, the latest discovery proves that people lived in these areas 13,000 years ago. This means that they arrived in the Amazon during the Pleistocene glaciation period – commonly called the Ice Age, and among archaeologists the Paleolithic or Stone Age. Mark Robinson highlights the importance of the discovery in Colombia:
When the first people populated the Amazon Forest, it was not any friendlier to homo sapiens than it is today. The challenge was not only the climate or predators, but also the huge biodiversity of the jungle. In their work, archaeologists working in Serranía La Lindosa present, among other things, evidence of the ability of Paleolithic people to adapt to living conditions in the Amazonian lowlands.
The people who decided to live in the Amazon basin did not build huts, but used caves as a place to live. Two of them: Cerro Montoya 1 and Limoncillos, were examined by scientists from the universities of Exeter (Great Britain), Antioquia in Medellín (Colombia) and the National University of Colombia in Bogotá. And they published the results of their work in the article: “The peopling of Amazonia: Chrono-stratigraphic evidence from Serranía La Lindosa, Colombian Amazon”, published in the scientific journal “Quaternary”. Science Reviews.
Caves served people from the Paleolithic and later Neolithic eras, not only as homes, they were also sacred places where art was presented. The rock paintings in Serranía La Lindosa cover a thirteen-kilometer wall! They are exceptionally accurate and clear. They depict animals, geometric, abstract patterns and people – both in everyday activities (thanks to which we can learn about the life of the first homo sapiens), and during ritual dances and feasts. The drawings are very clear, so scientists had no problem identifying the animals depicted in them, including paleolama and mammoth – a species that became extinct at the turn of the Pleistocene and Holocene. The creators of the painting must have known these animals, so they lived at a time when they walked the Earth.
The quality of the painting and its value for culture and history caused the cave paintings at Serranía La Lindosa to be called “the Sistine Chapel of prehistory”, thus taking away the title of the most famous cave with rock drawings to date – Lascaux in France. Regardless of the “media” nomenclature, the fact remains that the discovery in Colombia is one of the most significant for history.
Soil samples taken in and in front of the caves proved settlements dating back 13,000 years. The examined sediment layers found stone fragments, charcoal and “high levels of organic matter indicating food preparation, consumption and disposal.”
Scientists also found ceramic vessels from 3,000 years ago, traces of land cultivation from 2,500 years ago, and traces of corn that were 500 years old. Research has shown that this area was first inhabited 13,000 years ago, and the last traces of settlement date back to the 17th century. In the meantime, there were periods when the area was completely deserted and no human foot touched the Amazon soil in this place for a thousand years. This raises another mystery that archaeologists will try to solve: why did people leave these areas and how did they return?