It is funny, humans have been digging around for hundreds of years looking for the remains of civilizations that are far more ancient than our own. You would think that by now, we would have discovered most of the interesting stuff, but this is far from true, Heck, it isn't even true for those places that have been dug up consistently, like Rome or Egypt. Just when you think that you have found everything that could possibly be found in a certain area, inevitably, something else gets found. Take the case of Britain, for example. The oldest carving in Britain has just been discovered in a cave there. It is over 13,000 years old. Its not a really big carving, as a matter of fact, it is no bigger than the size of an average man's hand, but in that tiny object rests the story of a person that lived, walked and ate on this planet, at a time before there were even cities. I don't think that we could possibly understand what life must have been like then.

There is a strange fact that I must tell you when it comes to British cave art. While there was cave art found all over Europe at that period of time, there was only one piece found in Britain. This is only the second piece found from what has become known as the Great Age of Cave Art. It makes you wonder how it was discovered, because most scientists wouldn't bother looking for cave art in an area where almost none has ever been found, at least that is my feelings on the subject. It turns out that there is a area, in Britain, that was used for living in, in prehistoric times and that is Gough's Caves and Gorge, in Somerset. The people that inhabited this cave, unlike those in Europe, didn't paint any pictures that we know about and just made that one carving that I talked about. It could be that they just weren't artistic, or maybe they did paint pictures but used a type of paint that faded away. Maybe life was harsher for some reason in Britain than in Europe and the people just didn't have time for art. Lastly, the damp climate of the British Isles might have had something to do it. Maybe the paint disappeared because of excess moisture.

It turns out that investigators from the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society just couldn't accept the fact that ice age inhabitants in Britain were any different from those in Europe and they spent years searching every tiny detail of the caves for evidence of art. Their search finally paid off. They were extremely hard to see, but using the newest techniques, they were able to bring up geometrical carvings. These carvings would have been missed by most people, but the scientists knew what to look for and were extremely careful in their work. This carving can now be viewed at the Cheddar Caves Museum. It is believed that the carving was used in religious ceremonies, possibly to pray to animal spirits and such. A holy man would have most likely conducted the services. The cave where the carving was found had been inhabited for about 1,000 years. Wow, it must have been quite a popular place in its day. Even until this day, the cave is subject to flooding and this probably accounts for the scarceness of carvings and statues.

Diamond Ring
Photo Source: Stock.xching

When we think of diamonds, we tend to think of ancient rocks that were formed under pressure for millions of years and have become very precious objects. We hold them in such high regard that we give them as a gift, to the people we love most in the world. They are in wedding and engagement rings, necklaces, earrings and appear in many other objects, but have we ever thought of them as something that might have formed close to the creation of the Earth? Can you imagine having something on your person that is that old? Well, as old as diamonds are, older ones have been found. A scientist from Wilhelms-Universitat in Munster, Germany, working with several other colleagues has reported that she found diamonds in zircon grains that were taken from the oldest area on Earth. That area is at least 4.25 billion years old. This means that these diamonds were formed only a few hundred million years after the Earth was.

One day, while walking along on a beach, in Canada, a rock collector noticed something that just happened to catch her eye. She bent down and retrieved it. It was a strange shaped rock and she liked it so much that she wore it around her neck on a chain. Little did she know that she had discovered something very important to the scientific community. Some where along the line, she took it to an archaeologist who authenticated the object as a stone age tool that was at least 9,000 years old. It is believed that the object is a spear point and dates back to somewhere around 7,500 BC. This is a very important item, because it helps the scientists understand the culture of North America. It is so important that they are now looking for prehistoric sites in the area that the tool was found. It is believed that trading took place where one might trade a spear point for an axe or some such weapon.

Bird fossils have been found that scientists think hold the answer between birds and dinosaurs. Most scientists are convinced that there is some connection between birds and dinosaurs, I myself, while not being a scientist, have the opinion that there is not enough evidence to indicate such a connection, but I will go along with this for purposes of this story. A type of bird called Gansus yumenensis is said to have live 110 million years ago. It looked very much like a goose. Scientist believe that this bird somehow fills in the gap between birds and dinosaurs. At the very least it is thought that this bird is the link between primitive birds and modern birds. The fossils are so well preserved that the feathers are still present. It is believed that this bird had an ancestor, which was the famous proto bird Archaeopteryx. The bird fossils were found in an ancient lake bed in the town of Changma in China.

Believe it or not, some scientists are now linking all sorts of animals together in the evolutionary chain, such as whales and hippos.What are they trying to say, that some whales developed legs and walked out of the ocean and shed quite a bit of weight. I can't help it, I find this awful hard to believe. Yes there may be many similarities in the genetic makeup of the two, but does that necessarily mean that one came from the other?

Hey if you go out for walks on beaches or in the woods, don't forget to keep your head down, you never know what you might discover. I discovered a fossil on a rock beach off of Lake Michigan. It was nothing spectacular, but it was nice. A small scallop had left an impression in a rock and I just happened to spot it.