Scientists Uncover 8000-Year-Old Tiny Hand Prints In Ancient Historic Cave Were NOT Created By Humans
Scientists Uncover 8000-Year-Old Tiny Hand Prints In Ancient Historic Cave Were NOT Created By Humans
AP86N7 Rock art, Mestekawi Cave, Gilf Kebir, Egypt’s Western desert.. Image shot 2006. Exact date unknown.
Anthropologists probing the discovery of tiny 8000-year-old hand prints in an Egyptian cave claim they were not created by human hands.
Explorers happened across the tiny hand imprints in a Saharan cave after unearthing more than 5000 graphics carved into the stone in Egypt’s southwest border with Libya 14 years ago.
But a study of the 13 tiny hand prints exhibit that not only are they not human – but that they are contemplated to belong to tiny lizards.
Scientists discover 8000-year-old tiny hand prints in ancient cave were NOT made by humans
The cave, which is also identified as Wadi Sura II, has been the focus of study for Emmanuelle Honoré of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research for years.
Amazing: the walls are are covered with hundreds of hand stencils, as well as images of people, wild animals and unusual headless beasts
She stated she was stunned when she saw the shape of the small prints.
“They were much smaller than human baby hands, and the fingers were too long,” she told National Geographic.
The scientists took measurements of the stencils and likened them to those of newborn human infants under a year, which includes newborn premature babies that were 26 to 36 weeks old.
But came to the shocking realization that the prints were not human and instead were made by lizards.
But while Honoré is sure the prints were made by tiny crocodiles or lizards – she is uncertain of the explanation why they are there.
Nile Monitor (Varanus niloticus)
Or why any civilisation would wish to sketch or utilize the legs of animals on their cave walls.
She included: “It’s very challenging for us as researchers to interpret these paintings since we have a culture that’s totally different.”
Nestled in the Eastern Sahara, the Cave of Beasts is 6 miles from the renowned Cave of the Swimmers but it is made up of some of the most extraordinary archaeological images ever found.
The desert is the world’s largest and is the size of Western Europe and goes from Egypt into Libya, Sudan and Chad.
It is one of the driest locations on earth – but wouldn’t have necessarily been so when the images were created – since there would have been water to sustain life.
