Archeologists are studying prehistoric rock drawings discovered in a remote cave in 2002, including dancing figures and strange headless beasts, as they seek new clues about the rise of Egyptian civilization. Amateur explorers stumbled across the cave, which includes 5,000 images painted or engraved into stone, in the vast, empty desert near Egypt's southwest border with Libya and Sudan. Rudolph Kuper, a German archaeologist, said the detail depicted in the “Cave of the Beasts” indicate the site is at least 8,000 years old, likely the work of hunter-gatherers whose descendants may have been among the early settlers of the then-swampy and inhospitable Nile Valley. By studying the sandstone cave and other nearby sites, the archeologists are trying to build a timeline to compare the culture and technologies of the peoples who inhabited the area. “It is the most amazing cave ... in North Africa and Egypt,” said Karin Kindermann, member of a German-led team that recently made a trip to the site 900 km (560 miles) southwest of Cairo. The Eastern Sahara, a region the size of Western Europe that extends from Egypt into Libya, Sudan and Chad, is the world's largest warm, dry desert. The region was once much less arid. About 8500 BC, seasonal rainfall appeared in the region, creating a savanna and attracting hunter-gatherers. By 5300 BC, the rains had stopped and human settlements receded to highland areas. By 3500 BC, the settlements disappeared entirely. The mass exodus corresponds with the rise of sedentary life along the Nile that later blossomed into pharaonic civilization that dominated the region for thousands of years and whose art, architecture and government helped shape Western culture. The visible art work covers a surface 18 meters wide and 6 meters high. In October, Kuper's team scanned the cave by laser to capture high-definition, three-dimensional images.
