Rock Art Draws Scientists to Ancient Lakes

[Judi Lynn]

Rock Art Draws Scientists to Ancient Lakes
By Michael Schirber - Jan 8, 2015

Life imitates art. And sometimes science does the same.

Seven thousand year-old rock paintings in the Sahara desert have, somewhat serendipitously, helped uncover evidence of ancient lake beds.

Researchers discovered the mineral remnants of the lake while studying a region well-known for its rock art. The most famous example is the Cave of the Swimmers, which provided a setting in the movie “The English Patient.” The drawings in the cave depict humans that appear to be swimming, floating and diving. And yet this area in southwestern Egypt is one of the driest in the world.

The generally-accepted explanation is that the climate was much wetter in the past, supporting not only the possibility of a swimming hole, but also abundant animal life, such as cows, giraffes and ostriches, which were also drawn or carved into the region’s rocks.

Scientists have previously found support for this local change in climate in ancient lake beds and other geologic data, but most of these lakes pre-date the rock art by many thousands of years. Until now, no one had identified any evidence of a relatively recent, semi-permanent lake that could have served as a swimming hole for the local rock artists.

“Indeed, we found that there were lakes not far from the Cave of the Swimmers,” says Chris McKay from the NASA Ames Research Center. -

See more at: http://www.astrobio.net/topic/origins/extreme-life/rock-art-draws-scientists-ancient-lakes/#sthash.kdcp2sxB.dpuf

[Igel]

1. I read not too long back about the formation of civilization and hierarchy in the Nile region.

The claim was that there was a sudden influx at about the time these lakes would have been drying up. This may have brought new skills, but it hit a certain critical population mass in which hierarchy was necessary to provide organization to ensure food and space for the new arrivals.

More recently there was something about warfare in the area, and that even with rudimentary weapons they still had organized battles. The connection between the two is fairly straightforward.

The lakes may have been vestiges from the wetter period thousands of years before. Or, quite possibly, the results of the slow drop-off and migration of rainfall due to the Earth's precession. River would have continued to flow and form oxbows until the discharge was too low; then you'd still get remnants in the form of filled basins and valleys, possibly rivers that never make it to the sea.