At least 2,000 years ago, people living along South America’s Orinoco River carved symbols into rocks—human figures, geometric shapes, birds, centipedes. And snakes, lots of giant snakes. One such slithering subject measures more than 130 feet long, which likely makes it the largest rock art ever discovered.
“We believe the engravings could have been used by prehistoric groups as a way to mark territory, letting people know that this is where they live and that appropriate behavior is expected,” said Philip Riris, a lecturer in archaeology at Bouremouth University in the U.K.
Adam Brumm, an archaeologist at Australia’s Griffith University who was not involved with the Orinico research, agrees with the study’s hypothesis that the gigantic snakes shallowly etched into the riverside rocks likely reflect indigenous creation myths and cosmology. He says their location close to water could also reflect a belief in the “rainbow serpent,” an immortal ancestral being that appears in Aboriginal and other ancient mythology.