Paleolithic Camel Image Discovered in Russian Cave

News November 29, 2017

(Lomonosov Moscow State University)
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Russia cave camel
(Lomonosov Moscow State University)

BASHKIRIA, RUSSIA—According to a report in Newsweek, an image of a two-humped camel has been discovered by restorative specialist Eudald Guillamet in the southern Ural Mountains. Guillamet was cleaning graffiti from a rock art panel in Kapova Cave when he found the camel image, painted in red ochre and partially outlined in charcoal. Uranium-thorium dating of calcite deposits suggests the camel was painted between 14,500 and 37,700 years old, at a time when camels did not live in the region. Researchers led by Vladislav Zhitenev of Moscow State University suggest the artist may have traveled a long distance to the cave. Horses, bison, mammoths, and woolly rhinoceroses—animals seen in other European caves—were painted as well. A camel image has also been found in Ignatievskaya Cave, which is located in the same region. For more, go to “New Dates for the Oldest Cave Paintings.”

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