Quest for Extinct Giant Rats Leads Scientists to Ancient Face Carvings/Picture

ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2011) — Ancient stone faces carved into the walls of a well-known limestone cave in East Timor have been discovered by a team searching for fossils of extinct giant rats.

The team of archaeologists and palaeontologists were working in Lene Hara Cave on the northeast tip of East Timor.

"Looking up from the cave floor at a colleague sitting on a ledge, my head torch shone on what seemed to be a weathered carving," CSIRO's Dr Ken Aplin said.

"I shone the torch around and saw a whole panel of engraved prehistoric human faces on the wall of the cave.

"The local landowners with whom we were working were stunned by the findings. They said the faces had chosen that day to reveal themselves because they were pleased by the field work we were doing."

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6af861f48d54.jpg[/atsimg]

A weird looking face to be sure. Doesn't look quite human to me, but I have never tried chiseling a face in stone with primitive tools.

From the way the article reads these carvings were just "noticed" even though they were studying other findings in the cave.

The Lene Hara carvings, or petroglyphs, are frontal, stylised faces each with eyes, a nose and a mouth. One has a circular headdress with rays that frame the face.

Uranium isotope dating by colleagues at the University of Queensland revealed the 'sun ray' face to be around 10,000 to 12,000 years old, placing it in the late Pleistocene. The other faces could not be dated but are likely to be equally ancient.

Lene Hara cave has been visited by archaeologists and rock art specialists since the early 1960s to study its rock paintings, which include hand stencils, boats, animals, human figures and linear decorative motifs. The age of the pigment art in Lene Hara is currently unknown but a fragment of limestone with traces of embedded red ochre was dated previously by Professor Sue O'Connor of The Australian National University to over 30,000 years ago.

Although stylised engravings of faces occur throughout Melanesia, Australia and the Pacific, the Lene Hara petroglyphs are the only examples that have been dated to the Pleistocene. No other petroglyphs of faces are known to exist anywhere on the island of Timor.

"Recording and dating the rock art of Timor should be a priority for future research, because of its cultural significance and value in understanding the development of art in our past," Professor O'Connor said.

www.sciencedaily.com...

It is really interesting to me how these were just noticed on that day. Researchers not paying attention or something else?

Mods, as usual I searched and found nothing. If it has been posted please remove this one.Thanks.

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe


Star and Flag friend.

We both posted this at 8:19 pm....www.abovetopsecret.com...&addstar=1&on=10555008#pid10555008

Curious what the mods will do.

I'll add your link to my thread too.

reply to post by BenIndaSun


I just now noticed that. The exact time frame. Star and flag for you as well!

Crud now I don't know who to reply to! Dual with pistols?

Anyway this is awesome! They remind me of some of the petroglyph's I've seen in California.I wonder if this is a collective subconscious deal or if there are some genuine clues to early migration patterns here.

I can't wait until they get some dates!

reply to post by Jinglelord


Dueling threads.

A lot of these carving do appear to be similar all over the world. Subconcious (group think) or various other reasons could be to blame. It could be contributed to the "ancient alien" theory as well.

Dates will be really nice!

Reminds me of my quest for giant hamsters which led me to the discovery of a massive wheel which the giant hamsters used to run in!
Are we trying to relate the ancient carvings with the giant rats or are we accepting that this was just a coincidence?

If they want to find ROUSs(rodents of unusual size) they should explore the nearest fire swamp.
Lookout for lightning sand.

reply to post by CholmondleyWarner


These rats may well have been able to handle a chisel... These were found in the same cave.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/930d906bf068.jpg[/atsimg]

www.sciencedaily.com...

At over 13 pounds they were huge. It gives me the heebie jeebies.

reply to post by ..5..


I was thinking maybe somewhere in the New York sewers...

Originally posted by Kangaruex4Ewe
I was thinking maybe somewhere in the New York sewers...

Yeah those get nasty

reply to post by zorgon


Shut The Front Door!! That thing is not real... is it?



Photoshopped... please tell me it is photoshopped. I have to sleep.

Originally posted by BenIndaSun


We both posted this at 8:19 pm....www.abovetopsecret.com...&addstar=1&on=10555008#pid10555008

Curious what the mods will do.

Actually, you got to it first...see at the URL bar, your thread is thread 662077 while his is 662078, so technically, you got it first.

reply to post by OracleOfEssences


It's "her's".

I never realized you could tell that way. Star for teaching me something new!