Colombia Teaches Farmers About the Origins and Preservation of Petroglyphs
There are several places in Colombia with petroglyphs, those engravings, some of them even thousands of years old, carved into stone by scraping or carving its surface through techniques such as incision, carving, or abrasion. But one place is special: the municipality of Tamesis, located in southwestern Antioquia, 143 kilometers from Medellin, and known as the birthplace of these engravings in the country.
Tamesis has more than 1,500 engravings on 120 rocks, and for that reason it is considered the place with the greatest concentration of these drawings in Colombia. Most of the petroglyph discoveries in the municipality have been made in the rural communities of El Rayo, El Encanto, San Luis, El Hacha, and Otrabanda.
Representations ranging from abstract to realistic
Given their importance, the Colectivo Rupestre launched the first School of Petroglyphs in Colombia so that farmers in the region can learn about the origins and care of these ancient engravings which, according to the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences at the University of Antioquia, date from between the 2nd and 5th centuries.
Most of them are representations, ranging from abstract to realistic, of spirals, geometric shapes, human figures, animals, and others that combine human and animal characteristics.
The School of Petroglyphs of Colombia began in 2024, when the Tamesis Archaeological Museum had just been renovated and expanded, and had recently received more than 80,000 archaeological pieces from the archaeological rescue carried out during the construction of the Pacific Connection II project, political scientist Juan Pablo Arteaga, one of the founders and coordinators of the collective, told El Colombiano.
“During that process, we discovered that although the Tamesis petroglyphs were not created by the Embera community that inhabits the territory today, there are references in their worldview that are related to some of those figures,” Arteaga explained to the newspaper. “They represent them in body paintings for special ceremonies, as well as in woven items and bracelets. We understood that it was important to take advantage of that knowledge and contribute to its safeguarding.”
A legacy of thousands of years that does not belong only to scientists
To carry out that task, they created the Dictionary of Petroglyphs with 30 symbols interpreted by the Embera Chami community of the La Mirla reservation, and one of the comments they received was that it would also be important to make visible and contribute to the knowledge that farmers have about the engravings, the Antioquia newspaper reported.
The School of Petroglyphs of Colombia will include three field trips and ten workshops where participants will learn about the ancestral knowledge behind the petroglyphs, the archaeology of the landscape, and how the territory is connected to the engraved rocks. Farmers will also be taught how they can care for them, which practices can damage them, and what actions are appropriate to contribute to their conservation and continue promoting their heritage value.
On the one hand, the project will educate people about the care of the petroglyphs and, on the other, it will seek to reduce the risk of misinformation. “About 20% of the rocks with petroglyphs show some type of damage caused by human activity,” Esteban Ardila, coordinator of Rupestres, explained to the newspaper. “We are not talking only about the natural wear of time, but about people who scratch them. This happens largely because they do not recognize the historical and cultural value of these sites.”
Ardila stresses that these rocks are a legacy of thousands of years that does not belong only to scientists. They are also part of the daily lives of the communities that live alongside them.