Ancient rock "carved faces" found: Sign of lost race, or geological processes?

BBC News/Science ^ | Monday, 20 October, 2003 | Dr David Whitehouse

[yankeedame]

Last Updated: Monday, 20 October, 2003, 11:11 GMT 12:11 UK

Ancient carved 'faces' found

By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor

If this is genuine, the artist would have been an extinct human species that died out about 150,000 years ago.

Cliff face

Local inhabitants say that prehistoric human faces are nothing new to the region and point to a rock cliff that they believe has been sculpted. They call it the Face of Borzone.

In 2001, in a pile of rubble collected for use as building material, Pietro Gaietto, from the Museum of the Origins of Man, saw something unusual in one particular head-sized rock.

"If I had not spotted it, it would have been covered in concrete and put into a wall," he told BBC News Online

Pietro Gaietto says it shows two heads, facing outwards and joined at the neck. One of the faces is bearded; the other is beardless.

Conceptual thought

"It has a very expressive face," he says. "The beardless face has two eyes, a mouth and a wide nose."

The Face of Borzone

He says close inspection of the rock reveals that it has been carved and knocked into shape.

Gaietto believes the sculpture is 200,000 years old, and would have been used in rituals.

He says it would have been made by an extinct species of human called Homo erectus, of which there is evidence in the region.

Older still

Gaietto's claims are controversial because hominids such as Homo erectus are not thought to have been capable of the symbolic thought needed to create art.

The earliest examples of human artwork that scientists feel confident to describe as such are all less than 100,000 years old. The most notable items are probably the 70,000-year-old engraved ochre pieces found in the Blombos Cave of South Africa.

But there are items some researchers have claimed to be art that are even older than the faces of Borzonasca. The so-called Tan-Tan object unearthed in Morocco in 1999 is said to be a 400,000-year-old sculpted figurine.

Mainstream science, however, believes these items are not man-made at all. It argues the distinctive features have very probably been moulded by geological processes.

[RonF]

Actually, it fell last May.

[HenryLeeII]

What?!?! 40+ replies and no John Kerry/Easter Island statue comparisons. This is a hugh oversight on the Freepers' part, seriesly hugh!

[thulldud]

Why does every discovery have to be sacred or related to rituals?

It's a ritual of another sort, peculiar to modern archaeologists.

[blam]

"Actually, they can tell. When the interior of a rock is exposed to the elements through carving, it begins to oxidize. Measuring the amount of oxidation will tell you how long that rock has been exposed."

Yup, that's how they exposed the writing on the stone box that was suppose to have contained the body of Jesus' brother.

[Marysecretary]

Now THAT is an ancient face, scarred by life.

[w_over_w]

Not so hugh . . . not so hugh! I did a Paul Atriedes "caption" search of the Kerry/Easter Island pic . . . it's been converted into a box with a little red X inside. I'm series!

So, I took a shower and came up with the next best thing . . . post #33. Goodnight!

[w_over_w]

Read your profile . . . God bless you too!

[Atlas Sneezed]

Omigod!

Last night, at Sizzler, I destroyed what I thought was a baked potato, but which probably was an important pre-historic artifact! It looked sorta like a face!

And today, I saw a cloud that I think was created by ancient wise sky people, which they created to represent a boat/ship/horse kinda thing, if you looked at it just right!

[HenryLeeII]

hideous! pure evil!!! where was the barf alert?!?!?!

[w_over_w]

Belated Barf Alert!

[Darksheare]

You're evil.
*chuckle*
I like it.

[Cooter]

Original model comes forth.

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[w_over_w]

You're evil.

No . . .
*But my coffee is*
8^)

[Junior]

I once read a spoof of future archaeologists recovering the remains of our civilization and thinking the toilet seat was a kind of ritual necklace.

You're right, though. If it can't be explained it's automatically a "ritual object." It could never be Thag's attempt to impress cave girls or anything like that...

[Darksheare]

I'm told by those over at the FReeper Foxhole that my coffee is evil.
Been told I should start a coffee shop.
*chuckle*
Have coffee seperated by FR handle and the comments it receives...

[Darksheare]

And teh toilet was supposedly a ritual urn.
Toot 'n C'mon's curse.
The story was in either Analog magazine or the other Sci-fi short story mag.

[Paulus Invictus]

Wow! That's convincing! Send it to TIME right away!

[Colorado Doug]

Sign of yet another, even older lost race

Here we have an exquisitely carved likeness of an extinct race of humanoid. It is believed that the genetic memory is so strong in some people that they are, even today, compelled to draw a similar likeness to this face, that of our forefathers. I think that the picture is sufficient scientific evidence that I speak the truth ;-)