(Newser) – Archaeology enthusiast Dmitriy Dey was watching a television program on pyramids when he decided such things should exist in his native Kazakhstan, as well. The New York Times reports he hopped onto Google Earth to look around a little and stumbled across what could prove to be the oldest earthworks ever discovered. Two weeks ago—eight years after Dey made his discovery—NASA released the first satellite images of the 260 or so mounds, banks, and trenches that populate a remote area of the country. According to Quartz , the largest of these man-made geometric figures is called the Ushtogaysky Square. It's 810,000 square feet with each side measuring as long as an aircraft carrier. “I’ve never seen anything like this," one NASA scientist tells the Times . "I found it remarkable."
Kazakhstan has shown little interest in studying what are now called the Steppe Geoglyphs since Dey discovered them in 2007, the
Times reports. In fact, so little had been published about the discovery that a professor looking into them thought they must be a hoax, according to the
Telegraph . That's starting to change. The
Times reports initial research into the earthworks reveals the oldest to be about 8,000 years old. If that's true, it would be the oldest ever found. Dey believes they could have been built by Stone Age tribes living in the region, which would challenge scientific assumptions on early nomadic peoples. Tribes would have to have been larger, better organized, and more stationary than previously thought. Dey is now hoping to set up a base from which to study the geoglyphs, and NASA has requested photos of the area from astronauts.
http://www.newser.com/story/215336/nasa-gives-best-look-at-mysterious-geoglyphs.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=earthlink&utm_campaign=rss_topnews
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Kazakhstan has shown little interest in studying what are now called the Steppe Geoglyphs since Dey discovered them in 2007, the Times reports.
It's a real shame that the officials there have shown little interest in these Geoglyphs, since it seems as if every week or so one hears of ancient artifacts being callously destroyed, making it impossible to learn about the people who were there thousands of years ago. Hopefully they'll become convinced they are national treasures (and they are) that should be protected.
No surprise, Randy. The Palestinians are very busy destroying as many historical Jewish antiquities, tombs and archaeological sites as they can in order to try to prove that Jews never previously lived in Palestine.
I thought it was mostly ISIL and of course when they were in control of Afghanistan they were famous for their destruction of thousands of years old states and artifacts. I'm afraid I don't know much about Kazakhstan, except that they are ruled by a President for life, but I haven't heard anything of them destroying ancient artifacts as much as they just plain ignore them.
Also, they are not Palestinian, so that's off topic.
"I thought it was mostly ISIL and of course when they were in control of Afghanistan they were famous for their destruction of thousands of years old states and artifacts."
I believe it was the Taliban rather than ISIL:
Taliban leader orders destruction of ancient statues
"Also, they are not Palestinian, so that's off topic."
You raised the topic of destruction of ancient artifacts, which opened it up for me to expand on your comment:
"...it seems as if every week or so one hears of ancient artifacts being callously destroyed,..."
You raised the topic of destruction of ancient artifacts, which opened it up for me to expand on your comment:
And once again I am reminded not to open any dialog with you. Goodbye again and for good.
Two reactions:
1) Very cool. Any new data that upsets the applecart is very cool.
2) The info comes from NASA.
NASA also supplies lots of AGW data.
AGW is a hoax.
NASA data is false.
The geoglyphs are fakes.
How sad it must be to be a denier. And it angers me that they have succeeded in polluting the image of NASA.
Wow! what an interesting find! I hope someone gets a chance to study them before they are gone!