In remote caves of the Pyrenees, lie precious remnants of the Ice Age undisturbed: foot and hand prints of prehistoric hunters. The tracks have remained untouched for millennia and are in excellent condition. Dr. Tilman Lenssen-Erz of the Forschungsstelle Afrika (Research Centre Africa) at the University of Cologne and Dr. Andreas Pastoors from the Neanderthal Museum in Mettmann are going on expedition to encode the secrets of the trails. Their idea: to involve the best trackers in the world in the project in order to learn even more about the tracks. San hunters from Namibia, also known as Bushmen, will be investigating the tracks. The scientific expedition will span two continents and seven weeks.
From the 9th until the end of June, the expedition will go to Namibia in order to prepare the San for the task in hand. The hunters are excellent trackers who can read details that evade others from trails. “The San are amongst the last known ‘trained’ hunters and gatherers of southern Africa,” explains Tilman Lenssen-Erz. Read more.
CARAJÁS NATIONAL FOREST, Brazil — Archaeologists must climb tiers of orchid-encrusted rain forest, where jaguars roam and anacondas slither, to arrive at one of the Amazon’s most stunning sights: a series of caves and rock shelters guarding the secrets of human beings who lived here more than 8,000 years ago.
Almost anywhere else, these caves would be preserved as an invaluable source of knowledge into prehistoric human history. But not in this remote corner of the Amazon, where Vale, the Brazilian mining giant, is pushing forward with the expansion of one of the world’s largest iron-ore mining complexes, a project that will destroy dozens of the caves treasured by scholars. Read more.
MEXICO CITY.- Underwater archaeologists of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH – Conaculta), recently explored three spaces, all abundant with Mayan culture materials: two semidry caves in Campeche and a cenote [A water-filled limestone sink hole] in Yucatan. The cenote stands out since it contains particularly stylish ceramic that is calculated to have been elaborated about 2,300 years ago. This is unique in its type since it’s the only one that has been found in a cenote.
To Helena Barba Meinecke, responsible for all the underwater archaeology of the Yucatan peninsula, the detailed registry of the caves and the cenote, as well as the archaeological elements found in them, confirm the speculation that these places were used for rituals in the pre Hispanic era.
The distinct characteristics of the pieces, located in the cenote San Miguel, make them stand out among the other discoveries. Access to this 20 meter (65.61 feet) deep body of water, is through the town well by rappel. Read more.
Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula is dotted with thousands of caves that once housed prehistoric people and later became sacred to the Mayans. German archaeologists and filmmakers are currently involved in a project to explore with modern imaging technology and make a 3-D film of this underwater labyrinth.
There are dead Mayans and the bones of people from the Stone Age in Mexico’s flooded caves. Now the underwater labyrinth is being explored with the help of modern imaging technology. Archaeologists are developing computer models of relics, and a film documents the caves in 3-D for the first time.
A person died here hundreds of years ago. His body fell into the flooded cave and sank into the water. His flesh gradually separated from his bones. Today, he stares at divers out of empty eye sockets. His skull seems to be pushing its way out of the soil, as if he were trying to rise from the dead, to rise up from the sand, shake the tiresome sediment from his bones and escape from the silent darkness. Read more.
On the banks of the Rio Grande, limestone caves containing rock art overlook the river. However, this unique record that was painted by people linked to the Huichol Indians of Western Mexico and is up to 4000 years old, is now under threat.
The artwork is now suffering from both insect damage and vandalism and is also being affected by a higher than normal humidity caused by the damming of the river below.
Doctor Carolyn Boyd of the Texas State University is at the forefront of the drive to protect and record the unique rock art and has been carrying out extensive research into the paintings as well as raising awareness of issues and running educational field-schools.
One such site, Panther Cave, in Seminole Canyon, is one of several hundred such cave locations in the Lower Pecos region with ancient paintings and rock carvings now recognized worldwide as archaeological treasures. Read more.
Treasure hunters have plundered two historic Byzantine sites in Istanbul, apparently due to the lack of preventative measures to protect them.
Two historic sites, the caves of İnceğiz and the İnceğiz necropolis of Maltepe, which were declared first-degree archeological sites in 1994 by the Istanbul Board of Protection of Cultural and Natural Assets, have since been plundered by treasure hunters. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has so far been ineffective in protecting the sites from grave robbers.
As Today’s Zaman reported citing the Akşam daily, the Çatalca Culture and Tourism Association is in possession of photos showing holes in the ground around the İnceğiz necropolis as a result of illegal excavations, as well as photographs of treasure hunters caught red-handed, excavating grave sites. Read more.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cave painters during the Ice Age were more like da Vinci than Dali, sketching realistic depictions of horses they saw rather than dreaming them up, a study of ancient DNA finds.
It’s not just a matter of aesthetics: Paintings based on real life can give first-hand glimpses into the environment of tens of thousands of years ago. But scientists have wondered how much imagination went into animal drawings etched in caves around Europe.
The latest analysis published online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences focused on horses since they appeared most frequently on rock walls. The famed Lascaux Cave in the Dordogne region of southwest France and the Chauvet Cave in southeast France feature numerous scenes of brown and black horses. Other caves like the Pech Merle in southern France are adorned with paintings of white horses with black spots. Read more.
Octavio del Rio examines an ancient Maya skull, well-preserved in the low-oxygen environment of an underwater cave. The scene was captured by underwater photographer and explorer Wes C. Skiles. Skiles died July 21 while filming and diving in the ocean off the Florida coast.
Archaeologists descend into the magical world of a cenote, one of hundreds of limestone sinkholes that dot the Yucatán Peninsula. These flooded caves are linked by a massive system of underground rivers extending to the sea—where freshwater bubbles from offshore cave openings. The ancient Maya believed that cenotes were entrances to the underworld, and thus spiritually significant. Centuries later their remains lie well-preserved in the deep.
Sinkholes provide a rare window into history—both natural and human. By studying the composition of geological cave formations scientists can learn about fluctuations of the ancient climate. The caves also hold the remains of ancient, sometimes extinct animals—preserved for posterity in a low-oxygen environment. Modern animals, such as cattle, may also meet their fate by slipping into the depths of a cenote.
No light reaches the depths of Diepolder Cave, save that carried by divers exploring north Florida’s sprawling spring system. The springs seem a world apart but they are intimately connected to the human world above, which means human actions directly impact the aquifer system. Read more.
