Deep in the Amazon rainforest, the cliffside region of Colombia’s Serranía de La Lindosa is home to an incredible collection of rock art that offers a glimpse into a lost world. These sacred hills are covered in vibrant paintings of animals, people, plants and patterns, each telling a story from the distant past.
While Colombia’s Institute of Anthropology and History (ICANH) collaborates with several universities to study the site, today the Universities of Exeter and Antioquia are bringing these stories to a global audience through Google Arts & Culture.
For centuries, ancient people used rock art for preserving historical memory through storytelling, map-making and documenting communal rituals. By painting the hills, some of the earliest generations of people to arrive in the Amazon transformed these landscapes into canvases for their cultural expression. This site can almost be seen as a precursor to social media: a platform for sharing stories and knowledge.
Here are five stories from the collection to help you connect with this extraordinary place.