Python Cave Discovery: 70,000-Year-Old Snake Rock and Ritual Artifacts. Sheila Coulson of the University of Oslo led excavations at Python Cave in Tsodilo Hills, Botswana A 6-meter-long quartzite rock carved to resemble a snake with hundreds of man-made notches was discovered 13,000 man-made artifacts were found half a meter beneath the cave floor in a trench
Sheila Coulson (University of Oslo) excavated Python Cave at Tsodilo Hills, Botswana. She found a 6-meter snake-shaped rock with hundreds of man-made notches, plus 13,000 spearheads made from colorful stones brought from hundreds of km away. ~70,000 years old. Some red stone spearheads were purposefully burnt. 🐍⛰️
Key Facts
- Sheila Coulson of the University of Oslo led excavations at Python Cave in Tsodilo Hills, Botswana
- A 6-meter-long quartzite rock carved to resemble a snake with hundreds of man-made notches was discovered
- 13,000 man-made artifacts were found half a meter beneath the cave floor in a trench
- All artifacts were spearheads connected to ritual use, including tools used to carve the snake
- Spearheads were made from multicolored stones brought from hundreds of kilometers away
- Comparative dating placed the spearheads at approximately 77,000 years old
- 22 spearheads were made from red stone and some were purposefully burnt and damaged as ritual destruction
Related site: Tsodilo Hills — view location, images, and history on the Ancient Nerds map.
Source: The 70,000-YEAR-OLD Carved Stone Snake & the ‘Mountain of the Gods’ by Ancient Architects