| Serranía de la Lindosa | |
| Location: | Serranía de la Lindosa, Guaviare Department, Colombia |
| Region: | Amazon Rainforest |
| Length: | About |
| Abandoned: | Yes |
| Epochs: | Contested, see text |
| Discovered: | 19th century |
| Archaeologists: | Ella Al-Shamahi |
| Ownership: | Government of Colombia |
| Public Access: | Limited |
The Serranía de la Lindosa is a stretch of cliff in Colombia covered by tens of thousands of painted rock art images.
The rock art was first recorded in the 19th century by Agustin Codazzi, who was mapping the region. It was also recorded by Richard Evans Schultes in 1943. The first photographs were taken in the 1980s.[1] Some sources erroneously suggest that the site was only recently discovered when it was publicized in the 2020s.
The murals have not been directly dated. Some authors have suggested that they date to around 12,600 years ago, based on dating of archaeological sites near the art,[2] but others suggest that they are too well preserved to be so old.[3] [4] It has been alternatively proposed that the art was made in the last 500 years by indigenous peoples after the initial European discovery of the Americas.[5]
The murals were painted with red ochre.[6] Some authors claim that the art depicts now-extinct South American megafauna, such as ground sloths, gomphotheres, native equines (Hippidion) and macraucheniids; others argue that they likely represent living animals, including domestic species introduced in the Columbian exchange like horses, cows, and dogs, leading to a younger age estimate.