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Outdoor cave paintings in the driest desert in the world testify to the lama's importance to the millennial cultures that have traversed the inhospitable terrain.
Conservationists working in the Atacama Desert in Chile want UNESCO to recognize the designs of the Taira Valley as a heritage site so that they can develop sustainable tourism in the region
Taira is "a celebration of life". site as "the most complex in South America" because of its astronomical importance and importance to local shepherds.
The rock art was a "shepherd's rite" necessary to ask the "gods who ruled the heavens and the earth"
Rediscovered by the Swedish archaeologist Stig Ryden in 1944, the l & # 39; Taira rock art is between 2,400 and 2,800 years old.
It consists of a gallery of 16 paintings over 3,000 meters (9,842 feet) above sea level on the banks of the Loa River running through the desert.
The gems of the crown are the drawings of Alero Taira 30 meters from the Loa in a natural shelter where the importance of the lama becomes
Not only the main source of wealth for the inhabitants of the Desert over the course of thousands of years, the lama has been used in ritual ceremonies across the Andes for as long as in the "Wilancha" or sacrifice to "Pasha". Mama "or Mother Earth.
"Possible to search"
"Nobody can understand things done 18,000 years ago because the cultures that made them disappear," said Berenguer, curator at the Museum Pre-Columbian art of Santiago.
"Here it is possible to delve into meaning because we have ethnography and because there are always people who live virtually 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 "testament" to ancestors who could not read or write.
About 90% of the engravings, painted mainly in red but also in yellow and white ocher, represent llamas But the remaining 10% represent the diversity of the desert, such as foxes, snakes, ostriches, partridges and dogs .
The few human figures that appear are tiny, if those painting them "wanted to go unnoticed by the greatness of the animals that were so important to their economy," says Berenguer
What the paintings also demonstrate is that 2,500 years ago, people were already studying the stars in an area that has more recently become the capital of astronomy with some of the more powerful telescopes ever built.
in conjunction with Atacama's observatory called "the universe of our grandparents", states that ancient inhabitants of this region studied the stars to learn how to domesticate the inhospitable desert and to survive his dangers.
See Lamas
In this vision, the 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 history and amateur astronomer. is located on an axis that aligns the sacred sands of Sirawe's sacred "sand eye" from where locals pray for rain, San Pedro volcano, Colorado Hill, and Cuestecilla pampas, another sacred place.
Volcanoes, like the sources, were considered deities by the natives of Atacama, while llamas were supposed to be born from springs.
The Alero Taira is positioned to be completely illuminated by the sun as well in winter as in summer solstices.
"There is evidence that this site was built here for specific reasons," says Berenguer.
Taira is not however the oldest example of rock art in this part of Chile. To the north, in the mining region of Antofagasta, lies Kalina, about 1,000-1,200 years older than Taira and Milla.
This art style was found on the plateau of the Atacama Puna in neighboring Argentina, but Taira 'Berenguer
One day he hoped that Taira would 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.
Learn more:
The magic of the night sky of Atacama
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