Petroglyph Near La Silla Observatory
This image of a petroglyph was taken near the site of the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile. Petroglyphs are ancient stone engravings, examples of which can be found scattered across the globe. In some places they can date back as far as 40,000 BCE, but the one pictured here is much more recent. The face of the stone shows human figures depicted alongside llamas or other similar wild camelids. The native nomadic people of the Atacama Desert in Chile would have followed herds of these animals across the largely arid and inhospitable land before they adopted a sedentary culture, creating desert oases where they bred camelids. The pale glow of stars and the silhouette of one of La Silla's telescopes frame the passing of the centuries and the progress of humanity from prehistory to our modern age of space exploration.
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ancient, art, artwork, astronomy, atacama, carving, chile, desert, engraving, historical, history, la, moon, night, observatory, petroglyph, prehistoric, primitive, relic, rock, science, silla, sky, space, star, stone
