Fires raging across Bolivia’s forests and grasslands have razed 4.2 million acres since May. The blazes—largely believed to be started by farmers intentionally clearing land for agricultural use—pose a threat to some 500 animal species, including jaguars, tapirs and parrots. As Agence-France Presse reports, the consequences of this unusually serious fire season aren’t limited to living creatures: Archaeologists say the infernos are also destroying Bolivia’s famed rock art.

“We believe that the damage is big and wide in terms of our heritage of rock art,” Danilo Drakic, chief archaeologist of the eastern Santa Cruz region, tells AFP.

The eastern town of Robore, which is home to sites of engravings dating to as early as 1,500 B.C., has sustained significant damage in recent months. Based on an initial assessment, Drakic says a “dark layer of soot” has blanketed all of the images, while heat from the fires has “caused stones to break, even to collapse.” Archaeologists will only be able to gauge the full extent of the devastation once the blazes have been extinguished.

According to Bolivia’s Rock Art Research Society, or SIARB, the country is home to more than 1,000 rock carving and painting sites. These artistic renderings grace the walls of small caves and rock shelters, as well the sides of vertical cliffs and large boulders. Spanning several millennia, the drawings range from a nearly 6-foot-long stylized serpent found at the El Buey Rock Shelter to the village of Calacala’s llama engravings and Peña Colorada’s abstract geometric patterns.