Posted on 08/20/2004 9:10:09 AM PDT by blam
Prehistoric Desert Town Found in Western Sahara
Thu Aug 19, 2004 01:52 PM ET
RABAT (Reuters) - The remains of a prehistoric town believed to date back 15,000 years and belong to an ancient Berber civilization have been discovered in Western Sahara, Moroccan state media said on Thursday. A team of Moroccan scientists stumbled across the sand-covered ruins of the town Arghilas deep in the desert of the Morocco-administered territory.
The remains of a place of worship, houses and a necropolis, as well as columns and rock engravings depicting animals, were found at the site near the town of Aousserd in northeastern Western Sahara.
The isolated area is known to be rich in prehistoric rock engravings but experts said the discovery could be significant if proven that the ruins were of Berber origin as this civilization is believed to date back only some 9,000 years.
"It appears that scientists have come up with the 15,000-years estimate judging by the style of the engravings and the theme of the drawings," Mustapha Ouachi, a Rabat-based Berber historian, told Reuters.
Berbers are the original inhabitants of North Africa before Arabs came to spread Islam in the seventh century.
The population of Western Sahara, seized by Morocco in 1975 when former colonial power Spain pulled out, are mostly of Berber and Arab descent.
GGG Ping.
I wonder how you figure out the name of a 15000 year old town. Does it have "Welcome to Arghilas pop. 1043" on the road into town?
I'd just find a water bill. That would have the name on it.
I'd just find a water bill. That would have the name on it.
Above from a website on glaciation. Ye Gods---a TOWN from before the end of the last ice age!!!! I wonder what they thought about the "global warming" of the day.
The scientists haven't described the location of the holiest structure on the holiest street in the holiest city yet. As soon as the local terrorists establish a base there they will have it located. Or at least it will be established as soon as the media find out where the terrorists are making their stand.
If people don't live in deserts, then maybe when the town was there, and people were living there...it wasn't a desert.
> I wonder how you figure out the name of a 15000 year old town.
Ummm... you don't, unless there are stories of such a town being in that area (and then you're still speculating).
If there was text in the town, you might eb able to read it off that... but damn, a written language 15,000 years old... I seriously doubt we'd figure it out.
Now comes the point in the program where people start argueing about the ethnicity of the inhabitants...
I know, but I didn't really understand what dead was trying to say, and it seemed like he wanted attention, so I answered.
He was repeating an old comedy routine. Sam Kinison I believe.
OK, thanks.
Out on the coast is a prehistoric seaport dock. It was already old when civilization began in Mesopotamia.
The more we look, the older we get.
Great find. WoW! Wonder what else is hidden under the deserts of the world, I've always thought the Gobi desert was a prime candidate for hidden cities. Sahara makes sense, if it was wetter and maybe even, if some of the new researchers claim, this was contemporaneous with ancient, ancient Egypt.
They were Berbers? I'm stuned!
made a killing in carpets from what ive heard.
15,000 years old??? A town??
I could be wrong but isn't it hard to have a town without agriculture?
The first farms discovered so far have been dated to around 9000 yrs old.
This isn't sounding right.
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