Anthropology.net

I know this is very late, especially over here in Europe, to be posting a call for submissions, and apologies to Jason over at Hominin Dental Anthropology, but if there’s something you feel would be appropriate for this blog carnival event, either from your own or elsewhere, please mail links plus brief intro to JacenSolo_1 at yahoo dot com – the edition is due out tomorrow, so if you’re in the US, you still have this evening to send something along. Thanks, and next time round I’ll endeavour to be a bit more on the ball. (TJ)

Nice story from Al-Ahram Weekly, on the recent discovery of a stunning array of engraved rock art at Qurta in Upper Egypt, which may be 15,000 years old, making it contemporary with the Magdalenian era of north western Europe, whose most well known sites from this era are Lascaux and Altamira, amongst a host of others; moreover there is an apparent stylistic similarity with its northern neighbours.

However, this rock art isn’t situated deep within caves, instead being engraved onto large rocks at an open air site; the engraved figures are described as being in pristine condition – it’s worth bearing in mind that although Egypt has been viewed as an essentially sun-drenched realm since the golden days of its dynastic civilisation, there is evidence of significant rainfall and flooding there between about 10,000 bp and 5,000 bp, and again between about 4,000 bp and 3,000 bp., so the preservation of outdoor sites as ancient as this, is all the more remarkable.

Here’s a description of the find made by the team of Belgian archaeologists from the Royal Museum of Art and History, funded out of Yale University, who have announced the news of this find…

“The story of the discovery began two months ago when a Belgian archaeological mission from the Royal Museum of Art and History, financed by Yale University, resumed its intensive archaeological survey on the Nubian-sandstone cliffs at Qurta. While carrying out their routine survey, excavators stumbled upon three rock art sites spreading over a distance of about two kilometres on the eastern side of Qurta. Entitled Qurta I, II and III, each site contains several prehistoric rocks bearing a rich collection of Palaeolithic illustrations featuring a large number of bovids, hippopotami, birds and human figures.”

Bovids are the most common animals depicted in the illustrations, with at least 111 representations in different positions. Of other animals there are seven examples of birds, three hippopotami, three gazelles and two fish. There are also 10 highly stylised human figures shown with pronounced buttocks, but with no other distinct bodily features.

All the rock art images are very darkly coloured and seem to be covered by a substantially developed varnish. Most of the images also have traces of intensive weathering through Aeolian abrasion and water run-off. Read the rest of this entry »