Not
especially known for its archeology, Venezuela does have
some interesting and relatively unheard of manifestations
of the pre-Columbian cultures that inhabited the country
in earlier ages, many of which are still totally covered
by the shroud of mystery.
The only geoglyph known to date in the
whole nation is located on a ridge in the valleys of Chirgua,
some 32 miles northwest of Valencia. The humanoid, reclined
figure known as “La Rueda del Indio” (Indian’s Wheel)
features two legs, is armless and has a large head with
three concentric circles bearing antennae. The mysterious
dig is 114 feet long, its outlines formed by trenches
almost 16 inches deep and 40 inches width. Its significance
is still unveiled, but taking into account the way the
figure is oriented in the hill some experts consider it
was dug to inform visitors who were the inhabitants of
those lands, predecessors of the Jarajara people. Several
boulders along the Chirgua River are carved with petroglyphs
of figures and faces.
The first Spanish settlement on Nueva Cadiz
in the Americas was founded on Cubagua
Island. Although completely destroyed by a tidal wave
in 1541 it offers visitors an insight via the excavated
ruins on the island on a short day trip from Margarita
Island.
Shallow
engravings of figures, hands and maps (presumably of places
or stars) are scattered in what is believed to have been
an important ritual center for pre hispanic communities
some 14 miles northeast from Valencia, in the 30 acres
Cerro de Piedras Pintadas (Hill of the Painted Rocks).
One of the largest groups of petroglyphs in Venezuela,
the site features vertical megaliths as well. Since exposed
glyphs cannot be dated, it seems it will always be a mystery
who made them and when. Close to the small village of
La Taimata, in the southern shore of the Lago de Valencia,
extensive petroglyphs have been discovered, as they had
been also in the western shore of the lake.
Venezuela’s
largest petroglyph, a 164 feet long snake dated 3,000-5,000
years old, lies in the Piedra Pintada (Painted Stone)
Natural Monument, near Puerto Ayacucho in Venezuela’s
Amazon.
This is an area of high archeological value not only because
of the petroglyphs but also due to the hieroglyphs, paintings,
caves and Indian cemeteries already described by German
naturalist Alexander von Humboldt during his visit to
Venezuela in 1800. The natural monument is a very good
area for birdwatching
as well, as some 300 species have been reported. Hundreds
of scattered petroglyphs sites are scattered all over
the Venezuelan Amazon, especially in boulders of the rivers’
edges, some of them visible only when the river levels
drop in the dry season, like the ones at Sardinata Island
on the Orinoco River, which are visited in our rafting
excursion, the ones in the Pereza (Sloth) Rapids, visited
during our Autana River Expedition or the ones along the
Casiquiare Channel visited during our longer Humboldt
Route Expedition.
The
town of Quibor, 21 miles southwest of Barquisimeto, has
a very interesting anthropological
museum showcasing intriguing ceramics excavated at the
site of an prehispanic Indian cemetery located in the
very downtown that was found by accident in 1967.
Closer
to Caracas,
the whole area between La Victoria and the Caribbean coast
is dotted with petroglyphs, the most known being in the
outskirts of Colonia Tovar, a small and quaint German
village 37 miles west of Venezuela’s capital.
Contact
us to include archaeology
tours in a customized itinerary of travel to Venezuela.
