Photo: National Park Service

The longstanding theory is that humans arrived in the Americas about 16,000 years ago. They migrated down the Pacific Coast after crossing the Bering Strait on a land bridge that once existed. They may have then used boats to sail down the coast around glaciers which were still extant as the last Ice Age wound down. This timeline is considered by many to be the logical conclusion from existing archeological sites and the sheer amount of ice that would have existed prior to this period. However, a paper two years ago used carbon dating to rewrite this timeline according to sets of ancient footprints at White Sands National Park in New Mexico. Their bold, controversial claims were recently bolstered with additional testing, suggesting that the footprints are an impressive 23,000 and 21,000 years old. This puts into question when humans arrived in the Americas.

The footprints are visible and distinct, stamped into what was once mud on an ancient lakeshore in present day New Mexico. Frozen into stone by layering sediment, the first testing aimed at establishing the age of the prints through carbon dating. As footprints are not organic material, the scientists used seeds from a lake plant called Ruppia cirrhosa. The seeds were found in the surrounding layers of sediment around the prints. Testing of the seeds suggested a date range of about 23,000 to 21,000 years ago. However, these initial findings caused some doubt among scientists, especially given its radical revision of known migrations. Loren Davis, an archaeologist at Oregon State University who was not involved in the research, expressed concern to Science that older carbon-14 in the lake water could have been absorbed into the plants which produced the seeds.

To help settle these concerns, the researchers have now added two new dating methods that both agree with their former findings. They took pollen samples from the surrounding sediment layers and found that carbon dating once again agreed with the seeds. The pollen would not have imbibed carbon because the trees grew on land. Quartz grains were also collected and tested by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating. The results showed that these stone bits were last exposed to light 21,400 and 18,000 years ago. Despite this impressive corroboration, some scientists still think erosion may have moved older sediment on top of the prints. Even so, the newfound evidence certainly suggests that 16,000 years ago humans may have already been in North America. Hopefully, further testing will bring more answers to light.

These footprints at White Sands National Park in New Mexico are now thought to be 23,000 and 21,000 years old, over 5,000 years before humans were previously thought to have roamed the Americas.

Photo: National Park Service

h/t: [Science.org, Scientific American]

Related Articles:

Art History: Ancient Practice of Textile Art and How It Continues to Reinvent Itself

Sister Duo Weaves Textured Wall Hangings Inspired by Australian Landscapes

How to Crochet: Learn the Basics of This Time Honored Handicraft

Artist Fills Forest with Life-Size Sculptures Made from Woven Rods of Willow

READ: Footprints in New Mexico Suggest That Humans Were Already in North America Over 20,000 Years Ago

The arrow has a quartzite arrowhead on a birch shaft. (Photo: Espen Finstad/Secrets of the Ice)

Climate change is impacting temperatures around the world. Collapsing ice shelfs and melting glaciers regularly make the news as indicia of a warming planet and shifting ecosystems. The receding of the planet's ice is also exposing remnants of the past which have lain preserved under cold temperatures for hundreds, even thousands, of years. The glaciers of Norway have yielded particularly interesting finds from past inhabitants of the region. In the Jotunheimen Mountains, archeological group Secrets of the Ice recently discovered an exciting Bronze Age arrow, complete with shaft, quartzite arrowhead, and even several fletching feathers.

The arrow was discovered on one of the group's regular patrols over regions where they know warming temperatures are melting ice. If an ancient item is missed, it may be destroyed by the elements once the ice that formerly sheltered it is melted. Luckily, the Bronze Age arrow, dating to about 3,000 years ago, was discovered in time. It has a birch wood shaft and three feathers at the tail, which are the fletchings which help arrows fly. Such delicate materials have been frozen preserved under the ice since they were dropped millennia ago.

The weapon also has an arrowhead of quartzite stone, cut into a point and covered in organic pitch. “The pitch was used for securing the arrowhead to the shaft and to smooth the front of the arrow, allowing for better penetration. Arrows with preserved arrowheads still attached are not uncommon during the Iron Age on our ice sites, but this early they are very rare,” says Lars Pilø, archaeologist for Secrets of the Ice. While the arrow was likely used for reindeer hunting, it was not discovered near the remains of any blinds, such as those that have been found elsewhere. Likely lost on an ancient hunt, the arrow is remarkable for its amazing preservation. Despite being broken into three parts from the weight of the ice, it is a fascinating remnant from a lost era.

This 3,000-year-old arrow has been well preserved for millennia by glaciers.

Even a feather remains preserved! (Photo: Espen Finstad/Secrets of the Ice)

h/t: [Live Science]

Related Articles:

2,700-Year-Old Petroglyphs Are Discovered Under Moss in Sweden

1,900-Year-Old Ancient Roman Swords Are Found in a Cave Above the Dead Seas

Fossilized Footprints Present Evidence of Earliest Known Shoes

Norwegian Family Discovers Bronze Age Rock Paintings on a Hike

READ: 3,000-Year-Old Bronze Age Arrow is Discovered at Melting Ice in Norway

The time capsule discovered in the statue base. (Photo: United States Military Academy)

West Point is known as a prestigious military academy, producing many of the nation's generals since its founding in 1802. Known officially as the United States Military Academy, it can also count two American presidents among its alumni. Such a long history is sure to come with good and bad moments, and even a few surprises. Recently, renovations uncovered a box hidden in the base of a statue of a Revolutionary War hero. It turned out to be a time capsule that West Point later opened during an assembly with great fanfare. The interior did not yield treasures at first, only silt. However, after some sifting, six historic coins and an Erie Canal commemorative medal were uncovered.

The statue which yielded the time capsule is of Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Polish immigrant. While not a West Point alum, he fought with the Continental Army during the Revolution. He died in 1817, and shortly afterward his statue was erected on the dime of admiring cadets. Its stone base was completed in 1828, although the column and statue atop was added in 1913. It is thought cadets tucked the time capsule into the base of the statue around 1828, and its existence remained unknown for almost 200 years. It is still unclear why the capsule was hidden in the first place.

The find greatly excited the university, which began to hype a ceremonial first opening to be filmed and presented on stage. Current students speculated what might be inside. However, when Paul Hudson, a West Point archaeologist, opened the box the waiting crowd received a disappointing news flash. “We don’t want to think that they went to all of this trouble to put this box in the monument and not put anything in it,” he said. But it required detailed lab work to eventually discover what else the box might held apart from the obvious pile of silt that may have once been something organic, such as paper.

Sifting carefully through the silt with wire, Hudson and his team found six silver early American coins. They date from 1795 to 1828. There was also a small medal from 1826 that commemorated the finishing of the Erie Canal's construction in 1825. A pivotal moment in United States history, the canal connected the great waterways of the northeast to produce thriving industrial centers across upstate New York and fill the bustling ports of New York City, down the Hudson River. The coins and the medals were clearly chosen for the time capsule for their meaning to the historic cadets. Brigadier general Shane Reeves, a dean, said in a statement, “There is no better opportunity to take a moment and be inspired by our Army and academy’s connection through time that is represented by that capsule and one of our nation’s true heroes.”

A 200-year-old time capsule found in a West Point statue turned out to be full of silt and surprises.

A historic coin found in the silt inside the time capsule. (Photo: United States Military Academy)

Eventually, six coins from the late 18th and early 19th centuries emerged, along with a medal.

The statue of Thaddeus Kościuszko. (Photo: United States Military Academy)

The dedication to the Revolutionary War
hero. (Photo: United States Military Academy)

h/t: [Smithsonian Magazine]

All images via United States Military Academy.

Related Articles:

Amateur Metal Detectorist Discovers 13th-Century Gold Coin Featuring Henry III

5,000-Year-Old Iranian Vase Features the First Known Animation

Perfectly Preserved 3,000-Year-Old Bronze Sword Discovered in Germany

Dutch Metal Detectorist Discovers a Medieval Hoard of Gold Jewelry and Silver Coins

READ: West Point Opens 200-Year-Old Time Capsule and Uncovers Six Silver Early American Coins

The ancient Babylonian tablet in cuneiform describes the pythagorean theorem. (Photo: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED)

The Pythagorean Theorem is fundamental to geometry. Named after the ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, the simple equation (c^2 = a^2 + b^2, where c is the hypotenuse) helps determine the missing value of a right triangle when you know the other two sides. Its application has been vital to technical endeavors like engineering and design for thousands of years. However, despite the name of the theorem, the numerical relationship of the sides of a triangle was known long before Pythagoras was born around 570 BCE. Ancient clay tablets suggest that the ancient Babylonians knew of this relationship as early as 2000 BCE.

The tablet above is a clay tablet discovered in Iraq and covered in cuneiform writing. It dates to sometime between 2000 and 1500 BCE. It was likely used as a teaching tool, because it describes how the “Pythagorean” theorem can be used to find the length of the diagonal of a rectangle. (Hint: A rectangle is two right triangles of equal side put together at the rectangle's diagonal, which is also the triangles' hypotenuses.) This ancient text is not the only evidence that the Babylonian's used this equation. Drawings on other tablets depict triangles which look amazingly similar to proofs of the theorem (see below).

So why does Pythagoras get all the credit, when Babylonians and likely ancient Egyptians and Indians knew the relationship between the sides of a right triangle? It is possible the heavy influence of the Pythagorean school, disciples of the man himself who passed down his teachings, may have influenced this. It is also true that much of ancient historical studies has been deeply Eurocentric. However, it is always important to remember the ancient mathematical traditions of non-European cultures and the interchange of ideas that happened over the millennia.

Clay tablets from ancient Babylon use the Pythagorean Theorem long before the ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras was born.

A Babylonian tablet using the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate a problem around 1,900 BCE. It reads: 4 is the length and 5 is the diagonal. What is the breadth? Its size is not known. 4 times 4 is 16. And 5 times 5 is 25. You take 16 from 25 and there remains 9. What times what shall I take in order to get 9? 3 times 3 is 9. 3 is the breadth.(Photo: Fig. 3, Ratner)

Related Articles:

NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson Is Honored With a New Spacecraft Named After Her

Helpful Infographics Visualize Complex Branches of Math and Science

Who Was Pierre de Fermat? The Mathematician Who Left Behind a Mysterious “Last Theorem”

Who Was Isaac Newton? Get to Know the Alchemist, Physicist, and Mathematician

READ: Ancient Babylonian Tablet Uses Pythagorean Theorem 1,000 Years Before Pythagoras Was Born

Photo: Sercan Küçükşahin/Anadolu Ajansı

Anyone who has studied ancient Roman architecture knows they never missed an artistic moment. From elaborate columns to painted plaster to marble statues, Roman villas in particular were true showstoppers. Even the floors were beautifully decorated with rich, intricate mosaics. One villa in the village of İncesu, in the province of Keyseri, Turkey, is a standout even among the incredible floors of Roman yore. The massive site in Anatolia is the largest Roman mosaic discovered in the region, with 6,500 square feet emerging this year alone. The mosaics are incredibly well-preserved. They include geographic designs and inscriptions in Greek and Latin.

The site of the villa sits above the ancient town of Sadogora, inhabited in the late Roman and early Byzantine periods. Excavations have been ongoing, with pauses for legal reasons, since 2010. So far, at least 10 rooms have been discovered across 43,000 square feet of excavated site, and 6,500 square feet of that is the mosaic flooring. The home was probably one for local elites or administrators of empire. The villa was estimated to be built in the third and fourth century CE, although it was likely used after the fall of Rome throughout the Byzantine and Islamic periods.

The mosaic is elaborate and expansive. The vast majority are patterns, which according to the History Blog include “simple guilloche (two interlaced strand lines), chain guilloche (the interlaced strands tie together like a linked chain), 3D cubes, Solomon’s knots, wave bands, meanders, ribbons, diamonds, swirls and much more.” One Latin inscription honors an unknown official name Hyacinthus; a Greek one is more clear: “If you are healthy, enter.”

Can Erpek, professor at Nevsehir Haci Bektas Veli University, explains, “We are talking about a high-end residence spread over a very large area, a residence with 33 rooms, we have not reached the limits of this residence, we foresee that the current residence will expand even further with our excavations that will continue next year. When we think of Cappadocia and the Central Anatolia Region, which has very valuable floor mosaics, we do not see floor mosaics on such a large residential floor.” It will be fascinating to see just how much more mosaic artwork appears with further excavation.

An incredible Roman-era villa in Turkey has yielded 10 rooms full of ornate mosaic with repeating patterns.

Photo: Sercan Küçükşahin/Anadolu Ajansı

Photo: Sercan Küçükşahin/Anadolu Ajansı

Photo: Sercan Küçükşahin/Anadolu Ajansı

Photo: Sercan Küçükşahin/Anadolu Ajansı

Photo: Sercan Küçükşahin/Anadolu Ajansı

Photo: Sercan Küçükşahin/Anadolu Ajansı

h/t: [Colossal]

Related Articles:

5,000-Year-Old Unopened Wine Jars Found in Queen’s Tomb

Perfectly Preserved 2,100-Year-Old Child’s Shoe Discovered in an Austrian Salt Mine

Archeologists Uncover Neolithic Stone Tomb With Hugging Skeletons in Scotland

Giant Buried Pyramid ‘Gunung Padang’ in Indonesia May Be the World’s Oldest

READ: Largest-Ever Roman Mosaic Discovered in Anatolia Turns Out to Be Even Bigger Than Expected

The ancient shoe, ready for laces. (Photo: Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum)

Hallstatt, Austria is the location of one of the oldest salt mines in Europe. There, humans have been mining the precious material for almost 7,000 years. Archeologists have been finding evidence of these ancient miners and their activities at similar mines in Austria. One recent find includes a child's leather shoe, almost perfectly preserved for an estimated 2,100 years.

The shoe was discovered in a salt mine south of Salzburg near the Austrian village of Dürrnberg. Made of leather, the item has triangle “eyelets” which would have been laced up with string. Some remaining flax or linen suggests the long-lost lace. While leather is an organic material and tends to vanish with time and rot, the salt in the mines has helped preserve this shoe. The other half of the pair, however, is likely lost to history. Even so, the presence of this tiny shoe—about a European children’s size 30 and an American children’s size 12—indicates that children may have worked alongside adults in the mine.

“Perhaps their job was to shovel up discarded rocks. Or perhaps they carried precious materials to the surface. Maybe they had a different job entirely,” Aspen Pflughoeft writes. “The only clue they left behind was a 2,100-year-old shoe.” The kids working in the mines could have performed a variety of tasks suited to short statures and small hands, much like many children sadly continue to do in mines around the world. But ancient miners would have used wooden shovels, and one's remains were found in the same mine as the shoe. Salt was a precious commodity, enabling flavor as well as preservation of food. Hence the irony of its perfect preservation of the child's shoe—salt, still precious after all this time.

This leather children's shoe has been preserved in an Austrian salt mine for 2,100 years.

h/t: [Smithsonian Magazine]

Related Articles:

1,900-Year-Old Ancient Roman Swords Are Found in a Cave Above the Dead Sea

Fossilized Footprints Present Evidence of Earliest Known Shoes

2,000-Year-Old Ruins of Stone Roman Building Found in Switzerland

Meet Ava, an Early Bronze Age Woman Buried in Scotland 3,800 Years Ago

READ: Perfectly Preserved 2,100-Year-Old Child’s Shoe Discovered in an Austrian Salt Mine

Photo: National Museums Scotland

Magnificent ancient tombs are not limited to the pyramids of Egypt or the ceramic-filled vaults of China. In far northern Scotland, Neolithic monuments abound across Orkney. Among these prehistoric sites are imposing mounds which hide stone brave complexes known as chambered cairns. While typically the mound of Earth heaped on top of the complex rises like a small hill, visible to passersby, these terrestrial indications were lost for one particular gravesite. When the earth and stones were moved in the 19th century by a local farmer, the graves below fell into obscurity. With much detective work, archeologists have now uncovered the impressively engineered tomb complex, including its strange pair of hugging skeletons.

Orkney is a series of islands off the northeastern tip of Scotland. It has rich prehistoric archeology, including Stonehenge-like monuments: the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar. Its most famous tomb is a chambered one known as Maes Howe. Similar tombs from the Neolithic period, built about 5,000 years ago, are known as Maes-Howe-type. The recently re-uncovered tomb is of this kind. Originally discovered in the 19th century, it was mentioned in contemporary newspapers. However, the leveling of the raised portion sent it back to obscurity.

Hugo Anderson-Whymark, of the National Museums Scotland, began a quest for the tomb in 2020. Using the clippings and an old sketch pointing towards the location, he found the site in summer 2023. Underground were stone walls creating a passageway leading into a 49-foot diameter circular structure. A central chamber and six smaller ones within had corbeled stone roofs. One of the side chambers held 14 skeletons of men, women, and children. Search of the material moved in the 19th century yielded pottery, stone tools, and a bone pin.

Vicki Cummings of Cardiff University, who co-led the excavation, said in a statement: “The preservation of so many human remains in one part of the monument is amazing, especially since the stone has been mostly robbed for building material. It is incredibly rare to find these tomb deposits, even in well-preserved chambered tombs and these remains will enable new insights into all aspects of these peoples’ lives.” Two sets of remains are uniquely postured, as if hugging even in death. “They could've been buried at the same time in crouched positions like they were embracing,” Anderson-Whymark told Live Science. “It looked like they were deliberately put in close relation to each other. We also found another skeleton whose arm was outstretched toward a different skeleton.”

The impressive stone engineering of the tomb adds to the uniqueness of the find. Only 12 Maes Howe-type passage graves are known in Orkney. “The tomb would've been impressive to see when it was fully standing,” Anderson-Whymark notes. “It came within inches of being destroyed in the 19th century.” There are still questions to be answered. DNA testing will illuminate whether the hugging skeletons are related, and further excavation might shed more light on Neolithic life. Meanwhile, visitors to this beautiful, remote corner of the world will be able to visit similar prehistoric sites and immerse themselves in impressive local history.

Archeologists have uncovered a tomb filled with 14 human skeletons.

Photo: National Museums Scotland

Two of them appear to be hugging.

Photo: National Museums Scotland

“These remains will enable new insights into all aspects of these peoples’ lives.”

Photo: National Museums Scotland

h/t: [Live Science]

Related Articles:

Perfectly Preserved 3,000-Year-Old Bronze Sword Discovered in Germany

Oldest Neanderthal Engravings Have Been Preserved in a Cave for 57,000 Years

Archeologists Discover ”Pizza” in an Ancient Pompeii Mural

Archeologists Excavate 4,000-Year-Old “Dutch Stonehenge” in the Netherlands

READ: Archeologists Uncover Neolithic Stone Tomb With Hugging Skeletons in Scotland

Gunung Padang in Indonesia. (Photo: RaiyaniM via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED)

When most people think of the pyramids, they usually think of Egypt. Those iconic structures rise above the sands to remind viewers of ancient days. However, other ancient cultures built pyramid structures too, including the Mayans. But an underground example known as Gunung Padang may take the prize for the oldest pyramid structure. Gunung Padang is located in West Java, Indonesia, where natural volcanic rock was sculpted over thousands of years into a pyramidal structure topped with columns and more. Recent estimates published in Archeological Prospection suggest Gunung Padang's construction began at least 16,000 years ago.

The hill in Indonesia is a form of punden berundak, or stepped pyramid. It is formed from a core of ancient lava which was shaped over thousands of years into terraces, one rectangular and four trapezoidal. Each terrace is bordered by volcanic rock columns. A central stairway consists of 370 steps. Geologists and archeologists have spent years trying to understand the history of the earthen pyramid. At its base is a layer of rock that was once lava released in a volcanic explosion.

The new paper postulates that between 25,000 and 14,000 BCE a layer was added to sculpt the structure. After a long lull, building spurts between 7900 to 6100 BCE and 6000 and 5500 BCE added rock columns and gravel-rich soil. The top soil and terraces were completed from 6000 to 5500 BCE. Yet these intermediary sections of work turned out to be more architecturally complex than previously thought. Seismic testing of the mound reveals interior chambers and passages with high ceilings and ample space. These chambers echo those on other megalithic structures, and are the next subject of investigation for researchers. The plan is to drill downwards and lower small cameras to investigate.

This ancient megalith was created over thousands of years.

The elaborate stonework of Gunung Padang. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED)

Much of the under-hill structure has yet to be fully explored.

Studying the site. (Photo: Natawidjaja et al.)

Studying the site. (Photo: Natawidjaja et al.)

h/t: [Science Alert]

Related Articles:

5,000-Year-Old Unopened Wine Jars Found in Queen’s Tomb

Ancient Life-Size Carvings of Wild Camels Are Discovered in the Deserts of Saudi Arabia

2,700-Year-Old Ancient Assyrian Lamassu Statue Is Excavated in Iraq

Head of Alexander the Great Statue Discovered in Turkey

READ: Giant Buried Pyramid ‘Gunung Padang’ in Indonesia May Be the World’s Oldest

The 5,000-year-old wine jars, some of which are sealed. (Photo: EC Köhler/University of Vienna)

No royalty was ever buried with quite the pomp and circumstance as the ancient Egyptian pharaohs and their family. Kings, queens, princes, and more were enshrined in multi-room stone labyrinths decorated across every inch and filled with the supplies for the afterlife. Egyptian Queen Meret-Neith was no different. Her tomb in Abydos, Egypt, is made up of a series of rooms where the 41 servants and courtiers buried with her could tend to her in death. However, one of the most striking finds in the complex is a collection of hundreds of clay jars which were once filled with wine, some of which are still sealed.

The wine jars were buried with the queen 5,000 years ago. Prior to her death, Queen Meret-Neith was an incredibly powerful woman, leading some scholars to speculate she may have been the first female pharaoh. Her status was reflected in the opulence of her grave goods, including the wine jars. Dig leader Christiana Köhler of the University of Vienna says of the incredible preservation of the items: “Considering that these are the remains of people’s lives and actions from 5,000 years ago, we are stunned every day at the amazing detail we encounter during our investigations, including the perfectly preserved grape seeds, craftwork and even footprints in the mud.”

Some of the jars remain sealed. As Emlyn Dodd, a researcher in the field but not connected to the project, told Newsweek: “The discovery of sealed, intact wine jars at Abydos, along with well-preserved grape pips, has the potential to significantly build our understanding of some of the earliest wine production, use, and trade in the ancient Mediterranean and North Africa. Analysis of the residues left inside the jars, for example, could illuminate the chemical composition of the wine that was once inside, revealing its flavor profile and any additive ingredients that were used.”

Even though the contents of these jars might no longer be as tasty as they once were, surely it served its purpose accompanying the queen to the next life.

These ancient jars are 5,000 years old, and some are even sealed with their contents of wine.

The elaborate tomb of Queen Meret-Neith. (Photo: EC Köhler/University of Vienna)

Preserved grape seeds discovered in jars in the tomb. (Photo: EC Köhler/University of Vienna)

Excavations underway. (Photo: EC Köhler/University of Vienna)

h/t: [Smithsonian Magazine]

Related Articles:

Art History: Ancient Practice of Textile Art and How It Continues to Reinvent Itself

Sister Duo Weaves Textured Wall Hangings Inspired by Australian Landscapes

How to Crochet: Learn the Basics of This Time Honored Handicraft

Artist Fills Forest with Life-Size Sculptures Made from Woven Rods of Willow

READ: 5,000-Year-Old Unopened Wine Jars Found in Queen’s Tomb

The camel carvings with virtual white outlines for ease of viewing. (Photo: Maria Guagnin et al.)

Imagine traveling through the desert of Saudi Arabia and encountering a tall reddish rock. Inside a crevice are carvings of almost a dozen camels etched in life-size proportions. This stunning artistic display is a mysterious, ancient tribute to the wild camels that once roamed the deserts of what is now Saudi Arabia. Although these etchings may pose more questions than it answers, a recent Archaeological Research in Asia paper suggests that this artwork may have held significance to early inhabitants at the southern edge of the Nefud desert.

These reliefs have been known as an archaeological gem for some time. Known as Sahout, the site is on the southern border of the Nefud desert, a vast sand dune desert that has evidence of human life stretching back at least 85,000 years. In ancient days, wild camels roamed the dunes (also America, but that's a different story) with shaggy fur and recognizable humps. The wild camel is almost a lost legend, with the only remaining ones being the extremely endangered Bactrian camels. These magnificent beasts had such a presence in daily life in the Arabian Peninsula that enormous sculptures were crafted of them long before Stonehenge was erected.

These newly assessed reliefs are a further tribute to the camels. Numbering about 12, the reliefs are life-sized. The camels depicted appear to have been drawn during their mating season, as the are rendered with the thick fur they would later shed. “What's most striking about the beautifully carved camels is that most of them are male,” lead author Maria Guagnin said. “Some of the carvings contain camels showing their dulla, an organ that hangs out of a male camel's mouth [and that is used to attract females].”

But why carve a pack of feral camels into a hard-to-find rock crevice in the desert? The answer is still unclear. However, testing has revealed that Sahout was often occupied throughout ancient history: from periods as distant as the the Pleistocene (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) to the Middle Holocene (7,000 to 5,000 years ago). Who exactly created the engravings is a mystery, especially since it overlaps with other drawings from different eras. Even so, reliefs reveal—through their similarity to other sites depicting camels—both the importance of these animals and rock art to early cultures in the region.

This pack of incredible life-sized camel engravings was carved by unknown people thousands of years ago on a large rock in the Nefud desert (modern-day Saudi Arabia).

Wild camels are shown in the carvings. (Photo: Maria Guagnin et al.)

h/t: [Live Science]

Related Articles:

Archeologists Discover ”Pizza” in an Ancient Pompeii Mural

1,900-Year-Old Ancient Roman Swords Are Found in a Cave Above the Dead Sea

5,000-Year-Old Iranian Vase Features the First Known Animation

2,700-Year-Old Petroglyphs Are Discovered Under Moss in Sweden

READ: Ancient Life-Size Carvings of Wild Camels Are Discovered in the Deserts of Saudi Arabia