Riris, P;
Oliver, JR;
Lozada Mendieta, N;
(2024)
Monumental snake engravings of the Orinoco River.
Antiquity
, 98
(399)
pp. 724-742.
10.15184/aqy.2024.55.
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Abstract
Rock art of the Middle and Upper Orinoco River in South America is characterised by some of the largest and most enigmatic engravings in the world, including snakes exceeding 40m in length. Here, the authors map the geographic distribution of giant snake motifs and assess the visibility of this serpentine imagery within the Orinoco landscape and Indigenous myths. Occupying prominent outcrops that were visible from great distances, the authors argue that the rock art provided physical reference points for cosmogonic myths, acting as border agents that structured the environment and were central to Indigenous placemaking along the rivers of lowland South America.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Monumental snake engravings of the Orinoco River |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.15184/aqy.2024.55 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.55 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | South America, pre-Columbian, spatial analysis, affordance viewsheds, rock art, petroglyphs, Indigenous myth |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology > Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10197634 |
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