Watch: Ice Age Paintings Discovered In Colombia's Amazon

Thousands of prehistoric rock paintings have been discovered by a team of archaeologists deep in the Amazon rainforest in Colombia.

The paintings, showing humans, animals, shapes and other images, are as much as 12,600 years old.

They were found in the La Lindosa mountain range in the southwest of the country by a team of researchers from Colombia and the UK.

Francisco Javier Aceituno, one of the team members, said the paintings offered an extraordinary glimpse into the daily life of the people who lived in the area thousands of years in the past.

Although the drawings have been exposed to the elements for so long, their clear forms offer scientists fresh insights into the way life was lived in prehistoric times.

The discovery was made last year but has been kept secret until now, ahead of the launch of a major series on Britain's Channel 4 network.

The series "Jungle Mystery: Lost Kingdoms of the Amazon" starts airing in the UK on Saturday.

The area where the paintings were found was under the control of Colombia's FARC guerrillas until a peace agreement was reached in 2016.

Since then it's been easier for outsiders to enter, but the archaeologists said the movement still held sway in the jungle, and this needed to be factored into plans for further study of the paintings.

"It is those who live there and those who control the territory who are going to give the endorsement to continue this investigation," said Gaspar Morcote-Rios, another member of the team.

The experts who unveiled this new archaeological treasure include specialists from the National University of Colombia, the University of Antioquia, and the University of Exeter in Britain, working with the help of the European Union.