Archeological Discovery Pushes Egyptian Art, Religion, and Culture Back to Much Earlier Date

CAIRO -- Archaeologists claim to have discovered Egypt's oldest known rock face drawings and etchings, dating back 15, 000 years ago, in the village of Qurta, some 400 miles south of capital, Cairo.

"It is not at all an exaggeration to call it 'Lascaux on the Nile'," said expedition leader Dirk Huyge, curator of the Egyptian Collection at the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, Belgium.

"The style is riveting. The art is unlike anything seen elsewhere in Egypt," added Salima Ikram of the American University in Cairo, who was part of Huyge's team.

According to the researchers, the engravings were chiselled into sandstone cliff faces at the Qurta.

Of the more than 160 figures found so far, most depict wild bulls. The biggest is nearly six feet (two meters) wide, they said.

"The drawings push Egyptian art, religion, and culture back to a much earlier time," National Geographic quoted Ikram as saying.

The team's findings will be published in the September issue of the journal Antiquity.

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