Questão 45 - UFU 1 Fase 2025/2

Archaeologists who spent years poring over images of stars and leaves have declared that a cluster of rock-art sites in Venezuela is the center of an ancient and previously unknown culture. 20 prehistoric sites have been identified bearing the motifs, all located in hard-to-access areas of Venezuela’s vast Canaima National Park.

Consisting of pictograms either drawn in red ocher, a natural pigment, or incised into the rock as petroglyphs (rock carvings), the images grace remote boulders, cliff walls, and even rocks located among rapids. They appear only faintly to the naked eye. After extensively photographing the rock art, which was then digitally enhanced using a tool called DStretch, the team learned much more about their style and coloring. They are still waiting to carry out dating studies. Similar art in Venezuela was produced in the early part of the Archaic period of South American history (10,000–3,000 B.C.).

The works studied bear strong stylistic connections with more recent art in neighboring Brazil, the Guianas, and Colombia. According to the archaeologists, this indicates that the newly found cluster in Venezuela was the focal center for a Canaima cultural tradition.

With its tabletop mountains rising thousands of feet above jungles and savannas, Canaima National Park is a challenging terrain to penetrate. Fortunately, innovative tools such as remote sensing and VR technologies can virtually transport researchers into the landscape and lead to the discovery of new sites. Having identified sites in this way, the team then needed a helicopter to physically reach the isolated rock-shelters, which otherwise would have taken a round-trip journey of several weeks on foot. Once in the field, the team deployed drones to get a clearer understanding of the topography and how this remote landscape would have shaped the lives of hunter artists.

Disponível em: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/. Acesso em: 1 fev. 2025.

 

Sobre a arte rupestre na Venezuela poder ser o sinal de uma cultura antiga perdida, é INCORRETO afirmar que