©Wild Blue Media/Marie-Claire Thomas

Tens of thousands of paintings have been discovered by a British-Colombian team of archaeologists, who call it ‘the Sistine Chapel of the ancients’. Drawn on cliff faces, which provide a smooth canvas and are sheltered from rain, they span 13 km (8 mi) in the Amazon rainforest, Columbia. The display contains animals, including ‘megafauna’ that went extinct at the end of the Ice Age. With secular assumptions of when this was, the team says the images are at least 12,000 years old.

Team member José Iriarte, Professor of Archaeology at Exeter University, said, “We started seeing animals that are now extinct … . The ice-age horse had a wild, heavy face. It’s so detailed, we can even see the horse hair. It’s fascinating.”

The range of images, drawn in reddish ochre, is staggering. There are people dancing, hand prints, geometric shapes, trees, plants, and a wide range of animals. These include giant sloths, horses, mastodons, fish, turtles, lizards, monkeys, and birds. There are also portrayals of wooden towers, probably used as platforms to draw the high-up paintings.

The artists are believed to have crossed from Siberia into North America before travelling down to the Amazon. This would have been during the biblical Ice Age. Lasting some 500–700 years, it was triggered by the volcanically-warmed waters of Noah’s Flood, some 4,500 years ago. Sea levels were much lower due to the water stored on land as ice. This exposed such routes for migrating people groups after Babel.

These breathtaking paintings clearly display the intelligence and artistry of Noah’s descendants. For biblical creationists there is particular fascination in any detailed record of extinct animals living alongside mankind. Other examples may come to light as more images are released from this treasure trove.

• Alberge, D., ‘Sistine Chapel of the ancients’ rock art discovered in remote Amazon forest; theguardian.com, 29 Nov 2020.
• Boucher, B., Archaeologists Just Discovered Tens of Thousands of Ultra-Realistic Ancient Rock Paintings in the Colombian Amazon; news.artnet.com, 30 Nov 2020.