What did they value enough to carve into stone?
What do the patterns and designs mean?
Some things, such as paintings or etchings of game and hunters, tell a clearer story.
Photo:A. Rozwadowski; drawing: Polish-Peruvian research team(CC BY 4.0 DEED)
Others may raise questions with more ephemeral implications.
Feelings, magic, and music might all lurk behind the engravings of prehistoric hands.
Surrounding them are countless zig-zags and squiggles.
Photo:A. Rozwadowski(CC BY 4.0 DEED)
A newpapersuggests these are petroglyphic representations of music played at psychedelic religious ceremonies.
The desert region of Toro Muerto contains thousands of petroglyphs carved into the rock by ancient artists.
Dancers,danzantes, appear often.
Photo:J.Z. Wołoszyn(CC BY 4.0 DEED)
Surrounding them are lightning-like lines as well as dots and hash marks.
Researchers have long wondered what these might be: lightning, water, or something else.
The researchers compared this to the art of the Tukano culture in the Colombian rainforest.
Photo:Polish-Peruvian research team, compiled by J.Z. Wołoszyn(CC BY 4.0 DEED)
Songs in this culture were a way to transport oneself to the beginning of time.
Geometric patterns were a way of visually conveying spiritual energy.
In short, the zig-zags of the Peruvian rocks may be music used in religious psychedelic ceremonies.
Photo:A. Rozwadowski; tracing: Polish–Peruvian research team,CC BY 4.0 DEED
Photo:A. Rozwadowski(CC BY 4.0 DEED)
Photo:J.Z.
Wooszyn(CC BY 4.0 DEED)
Photo:Polish-Peruvian research team, compiled by J.Z.
Redrawn by A. Rozwadowski after Umusi Parokumu & Toramu Kehiri 1995, fig.
Photo:Desana artist Luiz Lana. Redrawn by A. Rozwadowski after Umusĩ Pãrõkumu & Tõrãmũ Kẽhíri 1995, fig. 33 / A, Rozwadowski et al.,CC BY 4.0 DEED
