18:09 | Cusco (Cusco region), Jul. 6.
Located in Urubamba province, Cusco, with a surface of 32,592 hectares, Machu Picchu Archaeological Park is home to at least 20 areas with cave paintings and four petroglyphs, said anthropologist Fernando Astete Victoria, head of the park.
Astete told Andina news agency the paintings have close resemblance with the ones previously found, including human-shaped, camelid, triangle and parallel-lines figures.
Images were found in Piscacucho, Isla Chido, and Isla Grande sectors. Recent finds took place at Huaca Pachamama — the only one located inside the sanctuary.
Attention should be paid to petroglyphs Roca del Sol and Roca de las Sierpes —found and recorded by Hiram Bingham, Yale archaeologist who brought Machu Picchu to worldwide attention.
Astete said he saw locals making an offering to one of the paintings in 1984, so it can be inferred that people knew some of these places.
“The Incas cave art included paintings and petroglyphs,” said Astete, who expects the research results to interpret the last paintings found at the sanctuary.
Machu Picchu continues to be the political, religious and administrative area of interaction between the Andes —home to mammalian meat, tubers and grains— and the Amazon —which provided medicinal plants, coca, wood, gold, silver, and feathers.
The paintings depicted in Machu Picchu shows the human presence in different cultures.
(END) PHS/JCR/RMB/MVB
Published: 7/6/2016