Sydney - Australian scientists are calling the discovery of a cave containing scores of rock paintings up to 4 000 years old one of the most significant finds yet of Aboriginal art.
The existence of the paintings, only announced on Tuesday, has been a secret for eight years since a hiker stumbled on the cave in rugged national parkland near Sydney in 1995.
Officials at the Australian Museum said the inaccessibility of the area in Wollemi National Park kept researchers from conducting a full-scale investigation of the find until May.
"It's like an ancient world that time forgot," said Paul Tacon, a museum anthropologist who led the expedition.
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| The inaccessibility of the area kept researchers from doing a full-scale investigation |
The cave has 203 paintings, stencils and prints in "pristine condition" depicting humans and god-like human/animal composites, birds, lizards and marsupials, Tacon said.
There are life-size, delicately drawn eagles, kangaroos and an extremely rare depiction of a wombat. They were created in 11 layers from around 2000BC to the early 1800s.
"We've never seen anything quite like this combination of rare representations in so many layers," he said.
The location of the site - described as a rock shelter 12m long, six metres deep and one to two metres high - will remain secret to avoid damage by vandals or sightseers.
New South Wales Premier Bob Carr said the "remarkable" discovery confirmed the richness of Aboriginal culture and spiritual life at a time when civilisation was blossoming around the world.
| The location of the site will remain secret to avoid damage by vandals or sightseers |
"This reminds us that, 4 000 years ago when you had civilisation flourishing in Mesopotamia, when you had the power of Egypt, before China was united, while Stonehenge was being built, we had Aboriginal people in these lands, on the outskirts of the Sydney basin," he said.
"This is eerie, because it's contact with a very old Australia and it's why we've got to honour our Aboriginal people." - Sapa-AFP
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