Roman mosaic floor has been discovered under a vineyard in northern Italy
A Roman mosaic floor has recently been discovered under a vineyard in northern Italy after decades of searching. While taking to Twitter Myko Clelland, who is a family historian, shared the images of the ‘biggest discovery’.
Local officials said scholars first found evidence of a villa at the site more than a century ago
Surveyors in the commune of Negrar di Valpolicella north of Verona published images of the well-preserved tiles buried under meters of earth.
According to officials, scholars first found evidence of a Roman villa there more than a century ago. Technicians are still gently excavating the site to see the full extent of the ancient building.
Image show the pristine mosaic as well as foundations of the villa.
A note on the commune diggers finally made the discovery “after decades of failed attempts”.
Surveyors must ask the owners of the vineyard and the municipality to “identify the best ways of making this archeological treasure accessible and usable, hidden under our feet.”
Technicians will need “significant resources” to finish the job. But local authorities have pledged to give “all necessary help” to continue with the excavation.
About Verona Roman
The Ponte Pietra: Roman arch bridge crossing the Adige River in Verona, Italy.
Verona, its strategic position at the center of a network of roads is comprised, of the streets Postogna, Gallica, and Claudio Augusta in the Roman period.
Even today in Verona, the traces of its Roman heritage are so abundant and well-preserved that after Rome, Italy is the region with the most recognizable parts.
Verona is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the second-largest city municipality in the region and the third-largest in northeast Italy.
The metropolitan area of Verona covers an area of 1,426 km2 (550.58 sq mi) and has a population of 714,274 inhabitants.
It is one of the main tourist destinations in northern Italy because of its artistic heritage and several annual fairs, shows, and operas, such as the lyrical season in the Arena, an ancient Roman amphitheater.
Between the 13th and 14th century the city was ruled by the Della Scala Family.
Under the rule of the family, in particular of Cangrande I Della Scala, the city experienced great prosperity, becoming powerful, rich, and being surrounded by new walls. The Della Scala era is survived in numerous monuments around Verona.
Two of William Shakespeare’s plays are set in Verona: Romeo and Juliet and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. It is unknown if Shakespeare ever visited Verona or Italy, but his plays have lured many visitors to Verona and surrounding cities.
The city has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO because of its urban structure and architecture.
A 300,000-year-old hunting stick capable of killing large animals has been uncovered in Germany.
The wooden throwing stick, used by the extinct human subspecies Homo Heidelbergensis, was capable of killing waterbirds and horses during the Ice Age.
Experiments show the 25-inch-long throwing sticks, carved from spruce wood, could reach maximum speeds of 98 feet (30 meters) per second. German researchers have said the weapon was thrown like a boomerang, with one sharp side and one flat side, and spun powerfully around a center of gravity.
But when in flight, the team says the throwing stick, also referred to as ‘rabbit sticks’ or ‘killing sticks’, did not return to the thrower.
Picture of throwing stick from Schöningen, Lower Saxony, Germany, with four views and engravings.
Instead the rotation helped to maintain a straight, accurate trajectory which helped to increase the likeliness of striking prey animals.
‘They are effective weapons over different distances, among other things when hunting water birds,’ said Dr. Jordi Serangeli, professor at the Institute for Prehistory, Early History and Medieval Archaeology at the University of Tübingen in Germany.
‘Bones of swans and ducks are well documented from the find layer.
‘In addition, it is likely that larger mammals, such as horses that were often hunted on the shores of Lake Schöningen, were startled and driven in a certain direction with the throwing stick.’
Hunters on the Schöningen lakeshore likely used the throwing stick to hunt waterbirds.
Researchers uncovered the weapon during an archaeological excavation at the Schöningen mine in Lower Saxony, northern Germany.
‘Schöningen has yielded by far the largest and most important record of wooden tools and hunting equipment from the Paleolithic,’ said Professor Nicholas Conard, founding director of the Institute of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Tübingen.
Detailed analysis by the researchers showed how the maker of this type of throwing stick used stone tools to cut the branches flush and then to smooth the surface.
The new throwing stick in situ at the time of discovery. The maker of the throwing stick used stone tools to cut the branches flush and then to smooth the surface of the artifact
The stick, carved from spruce wood, is around 25 inches (64.5cm) long, just over 1 inch (2.9cm) in diameter, and weighs 264 grams. The sticks also had fractures and damage consistent with that found on similar experimental examples.
For the first time researchers say the study provides clear evidence of the function of such a weapon. Late Lower Palaeolithic hominins in Northern Europe were ‘highly effective hunters’ with a wide array of wooden weapons that are rarely preserved, they say.
‘300,000 years ago, hunters had used different high-quality weapons such as throwing sticks, javelins and thrust lances in combination,’ said Professor Conard. ‘Similar to how hunters nowadays have an array of bolt action or Fox Airsoft guns to choose from when hunting the right game, prehistoric hunters seemed to have picked the right throwing weapon for the animal they were trying to hunt as well.’
Overview of the excavation at Schöningen. Researchers attribute the discovery to the ‘outstanding’ preservation of wooden artifacts in the water-saturated lakeside sediments in Schöningen
‘The chances of finding Paleolithic artifacts made of wood are normally zero.
‘Only thanks to the fabulously good conservation conditions in water-saturated lakeside sediments in Schöningen can we document the evolution of hunting and the varied use of wooden tools.’
The discovery has been detailed further in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
When Did Human Ancestors First Emerge?
The timeline of human evolution can be traced back millions of years. Experts estimate that the family tree goes as such:
• 55 million years ago – First primitive primates evolve
• 15 million years ago – Hominidae (great apes) evolve from the ancestors of the gibbon.
• 7 million years ago – First gorillas evolve. Later, chimp and human lineages diverge.
• 5.5 million years ago – Ardipithecus, early ‘proto-human’ shares traits with chimps and gorillas.
• 4 million years ago – Ape like early humans, the Australopithecines appeared. They had brains no larger than a chimpanzee’s but other more human-like features.
• 3.9-2.9 million years ago – Australopithecus afarensis lived in Africa.
• 2.7 million years ago – Paranthropus, lived in woods and had massive jaws for chewing.
• 2.6 million years ago – Hand axes become the first major technological innovation.
• 2.3 million years ago – Homo habilis first thought to have appeared in Africa.
Archaeologists in Spain Seek Grave of 16th-Century Irish Hero
VALLADOLID, SPAIN—The Archaeology org reports that a team of researchers led by archaeologist Óscar Burón have uncovered human remains at what may be the burial place of Red Hugh O’Donnell.
Statue of Red Hugh O’Donnell
An Irish nobleman who led a rebellion against the government in Ireland and died in Spain in 1602, after attempting to persuade Spanish king Philip III to send additional troops to Ireland to continue the fight against the English.
A tweet from the city’s tourism and culture department read: “A part of the skull, a femur, and some more remains appear in what appears to be the access to the Chapel of the Marvels.”
On day five of the dig in Valladolid’s Constitution Street on Friday, the archaeologists recovered human remains.
The city’s culture councillor Ana Redondo posted a shamrock emoji and the words “estamos cerca” – “we are close”.
The archaeologists involved are also searching for the remains of Christopher Columbus, who in 1492 became the first European to discover the Americas.
He was buried in the same place as O’Donnell. However, Columbus’s remains were allegedly removed and reburied in the cathedral of Seville and later in the Dominican Republic.
In search of Red Hugh O’Donnell, the Irish William Wallace who ended his days in Valladolid.
Speaking on Friday, which was the 514th anniversary of the funeral of Columbus in Valladolid, chief archaeologist Óscar Burón said he believed that both O’Donnell and Columbus are “buried right under our feet and now we are concerned with checking whether the research we have undertaken is correct”.
He described O’Donnell as an “Irish prince and the hero of the resistance against the English”.
O’Donnell and his father-in-law Hugh Mor O’Neill, who between them controlled large parts of the north of Ireland, started the Nine Years War to drive the English out of Ireland.
Battle of Kinsale
It began promisingly and the Irish won a number of significant victories, but eventually ended in defeat following the siege and then the Battle of Kinsale in late 1601 and early 1602.
A combined force of Spanish and Irish troops was defeated by the English in one of the worst military setbacks in Irish history, after which Red Hugh fled to Spain.
Though Philip III never did provide the soldiers requested by Red Hugh, he did give him the equivalent of a royal funeral as described in the Annals of the Four Masters.
“His body was conveyed to the king’s palace at Valladolid in a four-wheeled hearse, surrounded by countless numbers of the king’s state officers, council, and guards, with luminous torches and bright flambeaux of beautiful wax-light burning on each side of him.”
He was buried within the Chapel of Marvels in the grounds of the Franciscan convent in Valladolid. The convent disappeared in 1836 and with it O’Donnell’s remains.
In a statement, Valladolid city council’s cultural department said finding the remains of O’ Donnell would be a “spur to the dissemination of this city abroad and also, of course, within Spain.
“The burial in Valladolid of these two characters of such relevance to the world as is the case of Columbus and to relations between Spain and Ireland against their common enemy: England, demonstrate the importance of Spain and specifically of Valladolid for centuries.”
On Thursday the team of archaeologists located other human bones, but not those of O’Donnell.
They hope that his remains will be easy to identify as he lost the big toes on both feet from frostbite after he escaped from prison in Dublin in December 1591. He fled into the Wicklow mountains in the depth of winter. His companion Art O’Neill froze to death in the escape.
Farmer discovers a huge hoard of more than 4,000 ancient Roman coins in Switzerland
One of the largest treasures of that type found in Switzerland was a hoard with over 4,000 bronze and silver coins dating back to ancient Rome, unearthed in the orchard by a fruit and vegetable farmer.
Some of the Roman coins found in Ueken, Aargau canton, which experts say were buried 1,700 years ago.
Several months ago, a Swiss farmer found the old coins in Ueken, a town in northwest Switzerland. He mistakenly planted them when his cherry trees were examined.
He then contacted local archaeological experts, who confirmed the presence of a collection of more than 4,000 bronze and silver Roman coins.
Large troves of Roman coins are often found in Britain. In 2009, a collection of nearly 60,000 rust-worn coins, known as the Frome Hoard, was found in a field in Somerset in 2009.
This Swiss collection is also one of the largest ever found outside of the UK, which makes it very special.
The discovery also coincides with a renewed global interest in Rome and Roman history, prompted by the discovery of an intact tomb at the archaeological site of Pompeii in October.
Archaeologists explain that the reason why Roman coins are typically found buried in large quantities maybe because they were offered as a ritual gift to the Roman gods.
This was the case for the Frome Hoard, but although the majority of the Swiss coins have been excavated, no definite answers for their original purpose have yet been hypothesized.
Archaeologists have determined that their owner systematically buried them between 270 and 294 AD, and never came back to recover them.
The coins were taken out of circulation shortly after they were issued, but the archaeologists estimate that they have been worth between one to two years’ wages at the time. The coins, made of bronze and silver components, have been remarkably well-preserved in the soil.
Near-mint: bronze coins dating back to Roman times
“The owner must have deliberately chosen these coins in order to hoard them,” Swiss coin expert Hugo Doppler explained to the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. “Their silver content would have guaranteed certain value conservation in a time of economic uncertainty.”
Swiss archaeologist Georg Matter was thrilled by the discovery.
“As an archaeologist, one hardly experiences something like this more than once in one’s career,” he told Spiegel Online.
As exciting as the discovery is, though, the Swiss farmer who first discovered the coins won’t be able to keep his find.
The skeleton of this women was buried with a treasure of jewels
Before Mount Vesuvius erupted on August 24, in the year 79, according to most historians, Herculaneum had a population of about 5,000.
Because the entire town has not yet been excavated, that is a rough guess based on the size of the area where it sits and the size of the amphitheater. Excavations turned up practically nobodies until 1982 when the waterfront area was excavated.
Far from all the skeletons found in the city were found in the boathouses, shown in this photo. Others were found along the beach which would have been in the foreground.
Apparently the residents did what I would have done. If the volcano is erupting inland, I would run for the ocean and attempt to flee by boat.
There is no way of telling how many people successfully did this, but we can determine how many people did not make it. We didn’t get to tour the boathouses but from internet searches, it appears that many of the skeletons are still there (note in the first photo that some of the boathouses have tarps over their entrance).
One of the skeletons found on the beach included one that has been dubbed The Ring Lady. As can be seen in this photo, she had an emerald and a ruby ring on her fingers when she collapsed on the beach.
A female skeleton of one of the inhabitants of Herculaneum, still wearing two rings on the left index finger, was found buried during an archaeological excavation.
In addition, she had a purse that contained two gold bracelets with serpentine heads that met as well as two gold earrings that probably held pearls. These were likely her prized possessions that she was attempting to take with her.
Here is a close-up of the rings. Examination of her body shows that she was a tall 45-year-old woman in good health with good teeth but a bit of gum disease. She was likely knocked down by the pyroclastic blast and died immediately.
Another skeleton found on the beach was of a Roman soldier who collapsed, his fists clutching the sand. Every bone in his body except his inner ear was broken suggesting that he too was hit forcefully by the surge and knocked to the ground.
He was about 37 years old, wore a sword and bone-handled dagger by his side, and had a bag of carpenter’s tool on his back. Soldiers often worked in that trade. Fifteen silver coins and three gold coins were found near him, likely originally held in a cloth moneybag.
Anthropologist Sara Bisel examined the body and found that he had probably been a warrior for quite some time.
He was missing three front teeth (missing six teeth in total), had a mark on this thighbone where a prior wound had healed and had thick well-developed thighbones likely from frequent bareback horse riding as was common among soldiers of the era.
Roman soldier skeletons are a very rare find since the Romans usually cremated their dead.
14,000-Year-Old Ancestor of Native Americans Identified in Russia
Since the Upper Paleolithic, modern humans have lived near Baikal Lake, and left a rich archeological record behind.
Russian archaeologists in 1976 excavating the Ust’-Kyakhta-3 site on the banks of the Selenga River
The region’s ancient genomes also uncovered multiple genetic turnovers and admixture events, indicating that the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age was facilitated by human mobility and complex cultural interactions. The nature and timing of these interactions, however, remains largely unknown.
The reports of 19 newly sequenced human genomes, including one of the oldest ones recorded by the area of Lake Baikal, are presently in a new study published in the journal Cell.
Led by the Department of Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the study illuminates the population history of the region, revealing deep connections with the First Peoples of the Americas, dating as far back as the Upper Paleolithic period, as well as connectivity across Eurasia during the Early Bronze Age.
The deepest link between peoples
“This study reveals the deepest link between Upper Paleolithic Siberians and First Americans,” says He Yu, the first author of the study. “We believe this could shed light on future studies about Native American population history.”
Past studies have indicated a connection between Siberian and American populations, but a 14,000-year-old individual analyzed in this study is the oldest to carry the mixed ancestry present in Native Americans.
Using an extremely fragmented tooth excavated in 1976 at the Ust-Kyahta-3 site, researchers generated a shotgun-sequenced genome enabled by cutting edge techniques in molecular biology.
A fragmented tooth belonging to a close cousin of today’s Native Americans
This individual from southern Siberia, along with a younger Mesolithic one from northeastern Siberia, shares the same genetic mixture of Ancient North Eurasian (ANE) and Northeast Asian (NEA) ancestry found in Native Americans and suggests that the ancestry which later gave rise to Native Americans in North- and South America was much more widely distributed than previously assumed.
Evidence suggests that this population experienced frequent genetic contacts with NEA populations, resulting in varying admixture proportions across time and space.
“The Upper Paleolithic genome will provide a legacy to study human genetic history in the future,” says Cosimo Posth, a senior author of the paper. Further genetic evidence from Upper Paleolithic Siberian groups is necessary to determine when and where the ancestral gene pool of Native Americans came together.
A web of prehistoric connections
In addition to this transcontinental connection, the study presents connectivity within Eurasia as evidenced in both human and pathogen genomes as well as stable isotope analysis.
Combining these lines of evidence, the researchers were able to produce a detailed description of the population history in the Lake Baikal region.
The presence of Eastern European steppe-related ancestry is evidence of contact between southern Siberian and western Eurasian steppe populations in the preamble to the Early Bronze Age, an era characterized by increasing social and technological complexity. The surprising presence of Yersinia pestis, the plague-causing pathogen, points to further wide-ranging contacts.
Recent view on the Selenga River close to the archeological site Ust-Kyakhta-3
Although spreading of Y. pestis was postulated to be facilitated by migrations from the steppe, the two individuals here identified with the pathogen were genetically northeastern Asian-like. Isotope analysis of one of the infected individuals revealed a non-local signal, suggesting origins outside the region of discovery.
In addition, the strains of Y. pestis the pair carried is most closely related to a contemporaneous strain identified in an individual from the Baltic region of northeastern Europe, further supporting the high mobility of those Bronze age pathogens and likely also people.
“This easternmost appearance of ancient Y. pestis strains is likely suggestive of long-range mobility during the Bronze Age,” says Maria Spyrou, one of the study’s co-authors.
“In the future, with the generation of additional data we hope to delineate the spreading patterns of plague in more detail,” concludes Johannes Krause, senior author of the study.
Archaeologists discover almost complete 300,000-year-old elephant skeleton
300,000 years ago in Lower Saxony elephants spread around Schoningen. In recent years there were the remains of at least ten elephants at Palaeolithic sites situated on the edges of the former opencast lignite mine.
Eurasian straight-tusked elephant died by the shores of a lake in Schoningen, Lower Saxony
In cooperation with the National Saxony State Office for Heritage, archeologists at the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tubingen have collected for the first time in Schoningen an almost complete skeleton of the Eurasian straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon Antiquus).
The species has died in what had been the western shore of the lake — what exactly happened and what the biotope surrounding the area was like 300,000 years ago is now being carefully reconstructed by the team. The preliminary study will be published in Archaologie in Deutschland and will be first presented at a press conference in Schoningen on Tuesday the 19th of May.
“The former open-cast mine in Schoningen is the first-rate archive of climate change, as stated by Bjorn Thumler, Lower Saxony’s Science Minister: This must be made even clearer in the future. This is a place where we can trace how humankind went from being a companion of nature to a designer of culture.”
Head of the excavation, Jordi Serangeli, wipes sediment away from the elephant’s foot
The elephant skeleton lies on the 300,000 years old lakeshore in water-saturated sediments. Like most of the finds at Schoningen, it is extraordinarily well preserved as Jordi Serangeli, head of the excavation in Schoningen explains. “We found both 2.3-meter-long tusks, the complete lower jaw, numerous vertebrae and ribs as well as large bones belonging to three of the legs and even all five delicate hyoid bones.”
The elephant is an older female with worn teeth, as archaeozoologist, Ivo Verheijen explains. “The animal had a shoulder height of about 3.2 meters and weighed about 6.8 tonnes—it was, therefore, larger than today’s African elephant cows.”
Pictured above is a composite photograph of the find. Archaeologists suggested the elephant had died due to old age, although they didn’t rule out human hunting
It most probably died of old age and not as a result of human hunting. “Elephants often remain near and in the water when they are sick or old,” says Verheijen. “Numerous bite marks on the recovered bones show that carnivores visited the carcass.”
However, the hominins of that time would have profited from the elephant too; the team found 30 small flint flakes and two long bones which were used as tools for knapping among the elephant bones. Barbara Rodriguez Alvarez was able to find micro flakes embedded in these two bones, which proves that the resharpening of stone artifacts took place near to the elephant remains. She also refits two small flakes, this confirms that flint knapping took place at the spot where the elephant skeleton was found.
“The Stone Age hunters probably cut meat, tendons and fat from the carcass,” says Serangeli. Elephants that die may have been a diverse and relatively common source of food and resources for Homo heidelbergensis. Serangeli says that according to current data, although the Palaeolithic hominins were accomplished hunters, there was no compelling reason for them to put themselves in danger by hunting adult elephants. Straight-tusked elephants were a part of their environment, and the hominins knew that they frequently died on the lakeshore.
Several archaeological sites in the world have yielded bones of elephants and stone artifacts, e.g. Lehringen in Lower Saxony, Bilzingsleben in Thuringia, Grobern in Saxony-Anhalt, Benot Ya’aqov in Israel, Aridos 1 and 2 as well as Torralba and Ambrona in Spain, Casal dei Pazzi in Rome, Cimitero di Atella, Poggetti Vecchi in Italy and Ebbsfleet in England. Some of these sites have been interpreted as examples of elephant hunts in the Lower or Middle Palaeolithic.
Reconstruction of the Schöningen lakeshore as the humans discovered the carcass of the straight-tusked elephant.
“With the new find from Schoningen we do not seek to rule out that extremely dangerous elephant hunts may have taken place, but the evidence often leaves us in some doubt. To quote Charles Darwin: ‘It is not the strongest that survives, but the one who can adapt best’. According to this, the adaptability of humans was the decisive factor for their evolutionary success and not the size of their prey.”
The fact that there were numerous elephants around the Schoningen lake is proven by footprints left behind and documented approximately 100 meters from the elephant excavation site. Flavio Altamura from Sapienza University of Rome who analysed the tracks, tells us that this is the first find of its kind in Germany.
“A small herd of adults and younger animals must have passed through. The heavy animals were walking parallel to the lakeshore. Their feet sank into the mud, leaving behind circular tracks with a maximum diameter of about 60 centimeters.”
The Schoningen sites have already provided a great deal of information about plants, animals and human existence 300,000 years ago during the Reinsdorf interglacial. The climate at that time was comparable to that of today, but the landscape was much richer in wildlife.
About 20 large mammal species lived around the lake in Schoningen at that time, including not only elephants but also lions, bears, sabre-toothed cats, rhinoceroses, wild horses, deer and large bovids. “The wealth of wildlife was similar to that of modern Africa,” says Serangeli.
The discoveries in Schoningen include some of the oldest fossil finds of an auroch in Europe, of a water buffalo, and three saber-toothed cats. In Schoningen archaeologists also recovered some of the world’s oldest and best-preserved hunting weapons: ten wooden spears and at least one throwing stick.
Stone artifacts and bone tools complete the overall picture of the technology of the time. “The lakeshore sediments of Schoningen offer unique preservation and frequently provide us with detailed and important insights into the culture of Homo heidelbergensis,” says Nicholas Conard, head of the Schoningen research project.
Further detailed analyses of the environmental and climatic conditions at the time of the elephant’s death are taking place at the Technische Universitat Braunschweig, the University of Luneburg, and the University of Leiden (The Netherlands). The excavations in Schoningen are financed by the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony.
Controversial Claim by Geologist: 14 million-year-old vehicle tracks
An ancient civilization drove massive all-terrain vehicles around Earth millions of years ago – and the traces are still visible today – a Russian university scholar claimed.
Dr. Alexander Koltypin a geologist believes that mysterious groove-like markings in the Phrygian Valley of central Turkey were made by an intelligent race between 12 and 14 million years ago.
Geologist Dr. Alexander Koltypin said: It is supposed to be the old vehicles driven on soft soil on wheels, maybe a wet surface.
Relief in basalt depicting a battle chariot, Carchemish, 9th century BC; Late Hittite style with Assyrian influence. Did such vehicles leave the tracks in the ancient Phrygia Valley?
‘Because of their weight the ruts were so deep. And later these ruts – and all the surface around – just petrified and secured all the evidence.
‘Such cases are well known to geologists, for example, the footprints of dinosaurs were ‘naturally preserved’ in a similar way.’
Dr. Koltypin, director of the Natural Science Scientific Research Centre at Moscow’s International Independent Ecological-Political University has just returned from a field trip to the site in Anatolia with three colleagues. He described the markings as ‘petrified tracking ruts in rocky tuffaceous [made from compacted volcanic ash] deposits’.
Repeated travel with vehicles eventually cut into the soft, volcanic rock in Turkey.
He said: ‘All these rocky fields were covered with the ruts left some millions of years ago….we are not talking about human beings.’
The academic said: ‘We are dealing with some kind of cars or all-terrain vehicles. The pairs of ruts are crossing each other from time to time and some ruts are deeper than the others.’
According to his observations, ‘the view of the ruts leaves no doubt that they are ancient, in some places the surface suffered from weathering, cracks are seen here’. The age of the ruts is between 12 and 14 million years old, he believes.
‘The methodology of specifying the age of volcanic rocks is very well studied and worked out,’ he said.
‘As a geologist, I can certainly tell you that unknown antediluvian [pre-Biblical] all-terrain vehicles drove around Central Turkey some 12-to-14 million years ago.’ He claims archaeologists ‘avoid touching this matter’ because it will ‘ruin all their classic theories’.
He said: ‘I think we are seeing the signs of the civilisation which existed before the classic creation of this world.
‘Maybe the creatures of that pre-civilization were not like modern human beings. ‘
Koltypin (pictured) graduated in Soviet times from the Russian State Geological Prospecting University, later working as a mainstream scientist
He claimed the ancient ‘car tracks’ are one of a number of clues ‘which prove the existence of ancient civilizations’ but which are often ignored by mainstream scientists. There was no comprehensible system for the tracks but the distance between each pair of tracks ‘is always the same,’ he said.
The deep tracks run along the landscape, some reportedly as deep as 3 feet (1 meter).
He added that the distance very much fits that between the wheels of modern cars, but the tracks are too deep for today’s vehicles.
‘The maximum depth of a rut is about three feet (one meter). On the sides of ruts, there can be seen horizontal scratches, it looks like they were left by the ends of the axles used for ancient wheels.
‘We found many ruts with such scratches,’ he said.
Koltypin graduated from the Russian State Geological Prospecting University and completed further studies at the Institute of Oceanology at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
More recently he has written books on popular science mysteries.
