Researchers from the National Museum, which belongs to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ) and Itatiaia National Park (PNI) are part of a working group created to seek responses on the recent discoveries of rock paintings in an area of the park, located in Serra da Mantiqueira, in a boundary area between Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais.
The investigation wants to decipher mysteries such as age and the origins of the paintings found in a cave.
The teacher of the Archeology Program of the National Museum, Madu Gaspar, tells in an interview with Agência Brasil that the group seeks, even, other records of people who lived around the surroundings.
“Regions that have shelters and caves with rock paintings are hardly an isolated point. We are investing in this aspect. At the same time, we are physically knowing that space, thinking of routes, trajectories, resources. This is the initial moment of research. We are taking contact with this reality hitherto unknown to us. We still have a long way ahead,” he said.
According to the teacher, although they were discovered in 2023, the paintings were only recently released, for the park to have time to organize to avoid the presence of visitors in the place, which is a place of hiking. One of the first actions was to communicate the Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage (Iphan).
“Archaeological sites are managed by IPHAN, and all actions, even of archaeologists, have to be authorized by IPHAN. They are accompanying in a very careful way, to give due importance to this archaeological testimony,” said the researcher.
According to the archaeologist, the priority at this time is to ensure the preservation of this site. For this, cameras were also installed and clarification work was carried out with the employees and the board of the National Park.
One of the researchers’ greatest questions is knowing when the paintings were made, but the answer will only be known with the advancement of studies. “We are working with the possibility of being around 2,000, 3,000 years old, but the survey is incipient. It has just begun,” Madu Gaspar said, who said the researchers have already gathered strong evidence of hunters in that place.
Discovery by chance
The paintings were located by the upper part of the Itatiaia National Park, considered the first national park in Brazil by Parque Tur concessionaire, the company responsible for managing the public visitation of the conservation area. Andres Conquista discovered the cave while making a climb in the region. He says that what caught his attention was a flowering with more than 15 red lilies and, as he approached to take pictures of the flowers, came across a different formation stone that aroused his curiosity. Upon entering the cave, he found the paintings.
“The first impact was a lot of concern. I had never seen a rock painting in my life, so I didn’t know what it was. I thought it was a tourist thing, graffiti. A few seconds later, I saw that I had no names or dates. Then I touched that it could be a very old thing. Check the paintings.
“Until then, they knew only what I had said, but when we went together, it was a great joy. For me, it was like I rediscovered. It was a lot of happiness at the time.”
For the teacher, the discovery is extremely important because Rio de Janeiro has received many researchers since the time of the Empire and is considered a cradle of Brazilian archeology. Then there was a feeling that the state was already well mapped by scientists.
“It caused us surprise to find an unprecedented place. Not that these sites don’t exist elsewhere. There are in Minas Gerais [Gerais]but there was no such manifestation in Fluminense territory. If it were still there at the top of the peak, where only one or another climber arrives. But no, it is in an affordable place. How had no one seen? I’ve done walking there. ”
UERJ Archeology Department Professor Anderson Marques Garcia pointed out that, until this discovery, in the development of archeology in the state of Rio de Janeiro, the spaces along the coast were the most attracted the researchers, while the interior and its different manifestations, sometimes, were not even researched. Garcia reinforced the concern with the preservation of the new archaeological site.
“In addition to graffiti or things like that, one can go there and decide to excavate, to see what’s inside. This can greatly disrupt future research. The place is small, and we need to be careful and calm as possible to try to understand and possibly bring some answers in the future about temporality, how they were there. or with this evidence we have found in the Paraíba Valley. ”
Isolated area
The area of discovery was isolated for experts to study. According to the Parquetur press office, “there will be heavy fines for those who disobey the orientation.”
There is no deadline for the place to be released to visitors, as the time researchers will not yet determine to analyze the discovery.
“Now, it is total preservation and control so that no one invades that area until the studies are completed,” said the advisory, which considers it possible that, with the completion of the studies, the area can motivate visitors.
This content was originally published in institutions unite to unravel rock paintings in Itatiaia on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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