PREHISTORIC wall paintings uncovered deep inside the Amazon rainforest depict animal-human hybrids and alien-like creatures.
Instead of pointing to the existence of paranormal beings, researchers believe the eyebrow-raising drawings highlight how ancient Amazonians "made sense of their world".
The Colombian Amazon contains some of the "richest" collections of rock art in the world, according to a new from the University of Exeter, in collaboration with other schools.
This slate, from the rock walls of Cerro Azul, is thought to have been drawn as far back as 10,500 BC.
However, the art is yet to be formally dated.
The pictures show depictions of deer, birds, lizards, turtles, tapir, and other animals, in red ochre pigments.
Though some of the animals have human features, like penises, and are stood on their hind legs with arms outstretched in human form.
"Penises, which are frequently depicted on human figures, are all but absent from animal figures," researchers noted in their study.
"However, the only examples of penises on animal figures are on potential therianthropes that incorporate both human and animal components."
Therianthropes refer to human-animal shapeshifters, which are common concepts in mythology and folklore.
These kinds of hybrid depictions were common across the Amazon, and particularly on the Cerro Azul hill where researchers excavated.
Images of avian-humans were found nearby at Las Dantas, as well as lizards with human-like heads at Currunchos.
Drawings of bird-plant-human hybrids and deer-humans were also discovered at Principal.
While etchings of sloth-humans were uncovered at Demoledores, and an unknown four-legged creature with a tail and penis was found at Reserva.
“They certainly do offer greater nuance to our understanding of the power of myths in indigenous communities,” Jose Iriarte, a professor at Exeter who worked on the study, said in a statement.
“They are particularly revealing when it comes to more cosmological aspects of Amazonian life, such as what is considered taboo, where power resides, and how negotiations with the supernatural were conducted.”
Researchers found remains of animals nearby and compared them to the drawings, finding that the artists did not just paint what they ate.
There was lots of fish remains nearby, but appear little in the artwork.
Big cats, which would have been abundant in the rainforest, were also missing from the drawings.
Although researchers assume these ancient humans did not get close enough to the predators to depict them regularly.
The art is an amazing insight into how these first settlers understood their place in the world and how they formed relationships with animals.
Dr Mark Robinson, Associate Professor of Archaeology at University of Exeter
Researchers noted that the shamans and elders of local communities, whose job it was the classify and catalogue flora and fauna, had 'ambiguous' and 'fluid' categorisations of animals and people.
It's this that may have led to supernatural morphs of humans and animals in art.
“These rock art sites include the earliest evidence of humans in western Amazonia, dating back 12,500 years ago,” added Dr Mark Robinson, Associate Professor of Archaeology in Exeter’s Department of Archaeology and History.
“As such, the art is an amazing insight into how these first settlers understood their place in the world and how they formed relationships with animals.
"The context demonstrates the complexity of Amazonian relationships with animals, both as a food source but also as revered beings, which had supernatural connections and demanded complex negotiations from ritual specialists.”
