Ancient Spider Rock Art Sparks Archaeological Mystery

LiveScience ^ | December 20, 2013 | Owen Jarus

[SunkenCiv]

Archaeologists have discovered a panel containing the only known example of spider rock art in Egypt and, it appears, the entire Old World.

The rock panel, now in two pieces, was found on the west wall of a shallow sandstone wadi, or valley, in the Kharga Oasis, located in Egypt's western desert about 108 miles (175 kilometers) west of Luxor. Facing east, and illuminated by the morning sun, the panel is a "very unusual" find, said Egyptologist Salima Ikram, a professor at the American University in Cairo who co-directs the North Kharga Oasis Survey Project.

The identification of the creatures as spiders is tentative and the date of it uncertain, Ikram told LiveScience in an email. Even so, based on other activity in the area, the rock art may date to about 4000 B.C. or earlier, which would put it well into prehistoric times, before Egypt was unified, noted Ikram, who detailed the finding in the most recent edition of the journal Sahara.

[SunkenCiv]

Archaeologists have discovered a broken panel that depicts the only known example of spider rock art in Egypt and, it appears, the entire Old World. Credit: Photo by Salima Ikram, North Kharga Oasis Survey, cropped by Owen Jarus.

[SunkenCiv]

[a fool in paradise]

Positively ANCIENT!

[Dr. Ursus]

Looks like they were scoring a gin game.

[Cowboy Bob]

Sorry... But I don’t see any spiders.

[Darksheare]

Is it too late to deny involvement?

[JoeProBono]

[beebuster2000]

or it could be some guy training with a chisel

[JRandomFreeper]

It was your coffee. Admit it. That's what drove them over the edge and made them see spiders.

/johnny

[Darksheare]

See spiders, red squiggly lines in their field of vision, and an overpowering RAGE as they thundered across the sandy plains in their resplendent battle formations?

[PhiloBedo]

IBTZSATSFM pic

[Bob Mc]

Most of this stuff is nothing more than pre-historic graffiti, the bored tinkering of a teenager, not art. Rare mind you, and fascinating, but not art.

[null and void]

They look more like:

Quipu...

[Texan5]

And-the Spiders from Mars played their guitars...

[TruthWillWin]

Prehistoric graffiti?

[Monkey Face]

No. You are SO busted!

[Darksheare]

Drats!

[Monkey Face]

*;o]*

[Darksheare]

*sigh*
“In the year 2023, we send coffee back in time as a gesture of friendship with our ancestors. The results, were terrible.”

Wish I could do animation.
It would be epically bad.

[Monkey Face]

It would be so epically bad, I would love it! LOL!