Amazing rock art depicting ‘woolly mammoths and rhinos’ were created by an ancient man at least 15,000 years ago, says a new study.
The petroglyphs straddling the border between Russia and Mongolia are 7,000 years older than previously thought.
The finds at the ancient alfresco ‘art gallery’ have been confirmed in a detailed study by scientists.
Mammoth image discovered at Baga-Oygur III, an excavation site in Mongolia, in the early 2000s
The team looked at etchings on the Ukok plateau, Russia’s Altai Republic, as well as Baga-Oygur and Tsagaan-Salaa in northwestern Mongolia
They depict rhinoceroses and the extinct woolly mammoths, rather than fantastical creatures with trunks, as earlier suspected.
It is known the woolly beasts became extinct in this region some 15,000 years ago which means the rock depictions by Palaeolithic artists are at least this old.
While most of the drawings were found in the 1990s and 2000s, new etchings have helped the team describe what they actually depict.
The unique open air collection spans the frontier area between Kalgutinsky Rudnik at the high Ukok plateau in Russia’s Altai Republic, and the locations of Baga-Oygur and Tsagaan-Salaa in northwestern Mongolia.
There was a dispute between experts over whether the drawings showed extinct woolly mammoths or fantastical creatures with trunks
Photograph of a mammoth calf inscription, which was discovered at rock Baga-Oygur III in 2017
While the petroglyphs are in different countries, the distance between them is only about 12.5 miles (20km).
At Baga-Oygur II site, a research team found a new image of a long-gone woolly rhinoceros.
The animal is recognisable with a squat torso, short powerful legs, a characteristic tail, and an elongated muzzle with its exaggeratedly enlarged two horns, reported The Siberian Times.
Top, petroglyphs of the ‘Kalgutinsky’ style at Kalgutinsky Rudnik (Ukok Plateau, Russian Altai) and bottom, the same style at Baga-Oygur and Tsagaan-Salaa (Mongolian Altai)
Inscription of a long-gone woolly rhino at Baga-Oygur II in northwestern Mongolia, just over 7.8 inches long (20cm)
Another new image at Baga-Oygur III evidently shows a mammoth calf, said the Russian, Mongolian and French researchers.
Images of mammoths at Baga-Oygur and Tsagaan-Salaa are similar to those known in the classic Upper Paleolithic cave art of Western Europe, researchers said.
The scientists also concluded that the artists worked with stone rather than metal implements, another sign of the great age of the pictures.
Two mammoth etchings and their place of discovery at Baga-Oygur II, also found in the early 2000s
Vyacheslav Molodin at the Kalgutinsky Rudnik site in Russia, close to the Mongolian border, in 2017
They used an identical so-called Kalgutinsky style for the Russian and Mongolian petroglyphs, which include other animals, spanning the modern-day frontier.
Researchers say specific stylistic features and the proximity the sites, suggest ‘they should be regarded as a special group’, which they have termed the ‘Kalgutinsky’ style, which is similar to European Upper Paleolithic rock art.
The scientific study ‘The Kalgutinsky Style in the Rock Art of Central Asia’ was published in Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia issued by Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Novosibirsk.
THE WOOLLY MAMMOTH DIED OUT 10,000 YEARS AGO
The woolly mammoth roamed the icy tundra of Europe and North America for 140,000 years, disappearing at the end of the Pleistocene period, 10,000 years ago.
They are one of the best understood prehistoric animals known to science because their remains are often not fossilised but frozen and preserved.
Males were around 12 feet (3.5m) tall, while the females were slightly smaller.
Curved tusks were up to 16 feet (5m) long and their underbellies boasted a coat of shaggy hair up to 3 feet (1m) long.
Tiny ears and short tails prevented vital body heat being lost.
Their trunks had ‘two fingers’ at the end to help them pluck grass, twigs and other vegetation.
The Woolly Mammoth is are one of the best understood prehistoric animals known to science because their remains are often not fossilised but frozen and preserved (artist’s impression)
They get their name from the Russian ‘mammut’, or earth mole, as it was believed the animals lived underground and died on contact with light – explaining why they were always found dead and half-buried.
Their bones were once believed to have belonged to extinct races of giants.
Woolly mammoths and modern-day elephants are closely related, sharing 99.4 per cent of their genes.
The two species took separate evolutionary paths six million years ago, at about the same time humans and chimpanzees went their own way.
Woolly mammoths co-existed with early humans, who hunted them for food and used their bones and tusks for making weapons and art.