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Outdoor rock paintings in the driest desert in the world bear witness to the importance of the llama in millennial cultures that traverse inhospitable terrain.
Atacama Desert conservationists in Chile want UNESCO to recognize the designs of the Taira Valley as Taira is "a celebration of life," said archaeologist Jose Bereguer, describing the site as "the most complex in South America" because of its astronomical importance as well as the
The rock art was a "shepherd's rite" necessary to ask the "deities who ruled the skies and the land "to increase their flocks of llamas.
Rediscovered by the Swedish archaeologist Stig Ryden in 1944, the rock art of Taira was between 2,400 and 2,800 years old.
It is composed of a gallery of 16 paintings at more than 3,000 meters above sea level on the banks of the Loa which pass through
The jewels of the crown are the designs of 39, Alero Taira about 30 meters from the Loa in a natural shelter, where the importance of the llama becomes very clear.
Desert dwellers over the course of thousands of years, the lama has been used in ritual ceremonies in the Andes for as long as in the "Wilancha", or sacrifice to "Pacha Mama", or the Mother Earth.
– "Possible of" Nobody can understand the things made 18,000 years ago because the cultures that made them disappear, "said Berenguer, curator at the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art in Santiago.
"Here it is possible to delve into meaning because we have ethnography and because there are always people living in much the same way as in the past."
According to Rumualda Galleguillos, one of the 15 natives still raising llamas in the Atacama Desert as their ancestors, these images are a "t estament" to ancestors who could neither read nor write.
About 90% of the engravings, painted mainly in red but also in ocher yellow and white, represent llamas of different sizes, some in the process of pregnancy, others in the process of breastfeeding
10 The remaining% represents the diversity of the desert, such as foxes, snakes, ostriches, partridges and dogs.
The few human figures that appear are tiny, as if those who painted them "wanted to go unnoticed in front of the greatness of Berenguer animals."
What the paintings also show, is that there is 2500 years ago, people were already studying the stars in an area that has more recently become the world's astronomy capital with some of the
A book written in conjunction with the observatory of the world. Atacama called "The Universe of our grandparents", states that the ancient inhabitants of this region studied the stars to learn to dome
– See Llamas –
In this vision, the l & # 39; universe is composed of the heavens and the Earth as a whole, the heavens forming the horizon of life. What is seen in heaven is a reflection of what is on earth.
Unlike the Greeks, however, the ancient astrologers of Atacama did not see Orion, Gemini, or Cancer.
They saw llamas, their eyes, corrals, a sling laden and a shepherd standing with legs apart and arms in the air, worrying foxes, said Silvia Lisoni, professor of 39, history and amateur astronomer.
Taira is located on an axis that aligns the sacred Sirawe "sand" Volcanoes, like the sources, were considered deities by the natives of Atacama, while llamas were considered as places of worship .
The Alero Taira is positioned so that it is completely illuminated by the sun on the solstices of winter and summer
"There is evidence that this site was built here for specific reasons, "says Berenguer.
Taira is not It is the oldest example of rock art in this part of Chile. To the north, in the mining region of Antofagasta, lies Kalina, about 1,000 to 1,200 years older than Taira and Milla.
This art style was discovered on the Puna Plateau of Atacama in Argentina, but Taira 'Berenguer
hopes that one day, Taira will be granted the status of World Heritage Site of UNESCO as rock art in the cave of Altamira in Spain or the Lascaux caves in France
.
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