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According to the researchers, these findings are the first-ever archaeological proof of visitors from Southeast Asia originating outside of Makassar on Sulawesi arriving in mainland Australia.Two watercrafts depicted in the rock art feature motifs that appear on the Moluccan types of Southeast Asian vessels. They are distinct from other seafaring cultures from the region, enabling the researchers to confirm their identity.As well as their distinctive shape and configuration, both boats appear to display triangular flags, pennants, and prow adornments. By comparing these two depictions with historically recorded watercraft from islands in Southeast Asia, the researchers suggest that they probably came...

The animals painted in ocher in Colombia may include giant ground sloths and other creatures that vanished from the Americas. But some researchers say the art has a more recent origin. At the end of the last ice age, South America was home to strange animals that have since vanished into extinction: giant ground sloths, elephant-like herbivores and an ancient lineage of horses. A new study suggests that we can see these lost creatures in enchanting ocher paintings made by ice age humans on a rocky outcrop in the Colombian Amazon. These dazzling rock art displays at Serranía de la...

Double impact may have caused tsunami, global cooling Pieces of a giant asteroid or comet that broke apart over Earth may have crashed off Australia about 1,500 years ago, says a scientist who has found evidence of the possible impact craters. Satellite measurements of the Gulf of Carpentaria (see map) revealed tiny changes in sea level that are signs of impact craters on the seabed below, according to new research by marine geophysicist Dallas Abbott. Based on the satellite data, one crater should be about 11 miles (18 kilometers) wide, while the other should be 7.4 miles (12 kilometers) wide....

Legend Rock carries 10,000 years of profound beliefs Ice Age paintings and carvings in Europe are revered as sublime achievements of early humans, yet the prehistoric rock art in the American West is far less known. At Legend Rock in central Wyoming, 10,000 years of profound beliefs are inscribed on red sandstone cliffs. As the Pleistocene period ended approximately 12,000 years ago with the passing of the last Ice Age, people were spreading from Asia to North America and south into what is now the U.S. Archaeologists have found evidence that the early immigrants took advantage of the moderating climate...

Jayapura (ANTARA News) - Many "matuto" paintings, as a kind of scratches from the pre-historic rock arts, were found in a number of villages which belong to Kaimana District, Provinice of Papua Barat, a local official has said. Matuto is a shape of a half-man lizard and believed as the ancestor of heroes, Head of Jayapura Archaeology Center, Drs.M.Irfan Mahmud,M.Si said here Monday. From the research, according to Irfan, a lot of matuto paintings were found at niche surfaces made as canvas for the artists of the pre-historic time in several archaeological sites. Matuto motif belongs to an anthropomorphic group...

Finding an Aladdin's cave Cory Holliday almost didn't see the stick figure painted on the sandstone. His first impression was that it was a clever fake. A cave specialist for the Tennessee chapter of The Nature Conservancy, Holliday was searching for caves on a 4,200-acre tract in a remote part of Fentress County on the Cumberland Plateau. It was winter, and he heard water. Thinking there might be a cave nearby, he hiked down to the base of a bluff, where he discovered a rocky alcove bisected by a 10-foot waterfall. On the roof of a nearby south-facing rock shelter...

October 22, 2008--Paintings of sailboats, ocean liners, and biplanes adorn newfound rock shelters in the remote Aboriginal territory of Arnhem Land in northern Australia. Researchers working with Aboriginal elder Ronald Lamilami discovered thousands of the paintings--including the largest rock-art site in Australia--during an expedition in August and September 2008. (See full story.) "It is the most important … rock art in the whole world" that shows contact with other cultures, said lead researcher Paul Tacon of Griffith University in Queensland, Australia.

Rock art from 5,000 years agoThe Astuvansalmi rock paintings are located on a steep outcrop, resembling a human head, on the shore of lake Yövesi. The site may have been used for ceremonial purposes. Rock paintings created during the Stone Age can still be seen today in dozens of sites around Finland. These awe-inspiring artworks are like windows into the ancient past, revealing tantalising glimpses of long lost cultures. FINLAND’S rock paintings mainly consist of brownish-red figures and markings painted onto steep granite walls, often overlooking waterways. Scenes feature people, boats, elk, fish and mysterious partly human figures that may...

Lascaux on the NileOne of the newly discovered rocks featuring three bovids with horns Palaeolithic rock art depicting animal illustrations similar to those found in the Lascaux caves in France have been discovered in the Upper Egyptian town of Kom Ombo, reports Nevine El-Aref The discovery of huge rocks decorated with Palaeolithic illustrations at the village of Qurta on the northern edge of Kom Ombo has caused excitement among the scientific community. The art was found by a team of Belgian archaeologists and restorers and features groups of cattle similar to those drawn on the walls of the French Lascaux...

Stone age cattle herders left religious imagery which was to re-emerge in Valley of Kings Rock art etched on cliff walls in the eastern Sahara more than 6,000 years ago could spell out the answer to one of archaeology's great puzzles - where the ancient Egyptians came from. The answer? They were there all the time. The pyramid builders made their first entry in the archaeological record 5,000 years ago. This appearance was so abrupt that it has provoked fantasies of alien landings, mysterious civilisations or an invading master race. But in Genesis of the Pharaohs, published on Monday by...