Ancient Rock Carvings Discovered
by In the search for extinct giant rats, Australian researchers have discovered on the Southeast Asian island of Timor ancient rock paintings. The carvings in the rock faces are at least 10,000 years old and found in a supposedly well-known cave, which is already exploring for decades.
In the search for extinct giant rats, Australian researchers have discovered on the Southeast Asian island of Timor ancient rock paintings. The carvings in the rock faces are at least 10,000 years old and found in a supposedly well-known cave, which is already exploring for decades.
The recent discovery, however, was more by chance than due to a systematic search, says Ken Aplin of Australia’s CSIRO research organization. “I looked from the cave floor to a colleague who was sitting on a rock ledge. The light of my headlamp fell on what looked like a weathered rock painting. “
A closer look Aplin and colleagues identified a real gallery of carvings in the cave wall faces. The petroglyphs show different views, together with highly stylized frontal eyes, nose and mouth. One of the faces is surrounded by a kind of halo, which is reminiscent of a sun.
The dating of the face led to an age of up to 12,000 years ago. Thus, it is older than any known counterparts in the region, the group led by Aplin and his colleague Sue O’Connor of the Australian National University. Nevertheless, recent works have similarities with the first Australians.
The Lene Hara cave is explored in East Timor since the 60’s. Her numerous rock paintings and other findings suggest that it was inhabited more than 30,000 years ago. Besides humans, they also served as a hideout quadrupeds: Aplin and colleagues there have found bones of a rat, it might have brought to a body weight of six kilograms.
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