An international team of scientists has discovered stylistically unique ancient drawings, including the only known prehistoric depiction of a now-extinct giant sloth lemur, on the walls of a rock shelter in western Madagascar.
Photograph (top) and artist’s sketch (bottom) of the inferred hunting scene: hunter (background, left) extends weapon toward inverted large animal in foreground; two dog-like zoomorphs are on the right. Image credit: Burney et al, doi: 10.1080/15564894.2020.1749735.
The drawings were discovered by Dr. David Burney from Hawaii’s National Tropical Botanical Garden and his colleagues from the United Kingdom, Madagascar and the United States in Andriamamelo Cave near the small village of Anahidrano.
All the depictions are painted with dry-applied black pigments made from charcoal or iron minerals.
They include several image groupings that comprise naturalistic scenes, with anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and human-animal hybrid figures.
Of possible significance is a repeated use of an M-shaped motif (ሐ), with anthropomorphic development in a few cases.
“We have not found this figure in other rock art around the Indian Ocean, except a rare occurrence in Borneo, believed to have been created about 2,000 years ago,” the researchers said.
“It also matches one distinctive character found in the Amharic alphabet of Ethiopia.”
“Eight instances were noted where images and themes suggest Ptolemaic Egyptian mythological characters and symbols, some possibly of stellar constellations,” they added.
“There are no characters from the Latin alphabet. No cattle images, nor any Judaeo-Christian, Muslim, or Hindu symbology.”
Dr. Burney and co-authors also identified several living animals and three representatives of the extinct megafauna: elephant bird, tortoise, and giant sloth lemur.
The latter appears in a hunting scene, with a hunter pointing a weapon, the giant lemur upside down, and two dogs.
The sloth lemurs (family Palaeopropithecidae) are a group of extinct giant lemurs that includes four genera. The common name can be misleading, as these creatures were not closely related to South American sloths. As the name implies, sloth lemurs were designed for treetop living, with long arms and legs, limber joints and hook-like hands and feet. These adaptations allowed them to be adept at both leaping and climbing. It is believed that over-hunting and the burning of their forest habitat by early human residents combined with a naturally slow reproductive rate gradually led to their extinction. This is a life restoration of Babakotia radofilai, an extinct species of medium-sized sloth lemur from Madagascar. Image credit: Smokeybjb / CC BY-SA 3.0.
“Standing on the left behind the other figures is an anthropomorph that appears to be brandishing a weapon, perhaps drawing a bow,” the scientists said.
“There are two distinct legs, and a third appendage pointing backward in the manner of a tail or a sheathed sword. The posture and detail evoke classical images of the conspicuous constellation Orion.”
“The weapon seems to aim toward a larger and more distinct image in the foreground, a zoomorph lying on its back with legs in the air.”
“We have only a few clues to the identity of this large conspicuous zoomorph. This animal’s profile is consistent with that of the extinct sloth lemurs.”
“These large primates are known as abundant subfossils from Anjohingidrobe Cave also in Beanka, such as Babakotia radofilai. They are generally reconstructed with long forelimbs, a short snout, and small rounded ears.”
“Beyond are two zoomorphs we interpret as dogs, one looking toward the ‘sloth lemur’ and the other, with erect ears, in the opposite direction.”
The authors think the drawings were created approximately in the beginning of the Christian Era or a few centuries before.
“The local people associate the images with a different ethnic group from themselves (Vazimba or Bosy), from an unknown time, who made them in connection with divination,” they said.
The discovery is described in a paper in the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology.
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David A. Burney et al. Rock art from Andriamamelo Cave in the Beanka Protected Area of western Madagascar. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, published online May 26, 2020; doi: 10.1080/15564894.2020.1749735
