Scientists hunting for fossils of giant rats in East Timor stumbled on unique rock carvings up to 12,000 years old, Australia’s research agency said.
The experts were digging in Timor’s Lene Hara cave, a treasure trove of fossils and rock art, when they chanced upon a group of stylised human faces etched in the
rock. “Looking up from the cave floor at a colleague sitting on a ledge, my head torch shone on what seemed to be a weathered carving,” said Ken Aplin of Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation (CSIRO). “I shone the torch around and saw a whole panel of engraved prehistoric human faces on the wall of the cave.”
The face carvings, which include one with a circular head-dress resembling the sun, are the first of their kind to be found in Timor and the only ones from the Pleistocene period (ending 12,000 years ago) in the region.
“The local landowners with whom we were working were stunned by the findings. They said the faces had chosen that day to reveal themselves because they were pleased by the field work we were doing,” Aplin said. —AFP