12,000-year-old mine found in Chile

12,000-year-old mine found in Chile

www.abc.net.au

Archaeologists from the University of Chile have discovered a 12,000-year-old iron oxide mine in the north of the country.

Researchers say it is the oldest mine discovered in all the Americas.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Evidence of reasonably developed level of industry and presumably civilisation in South America just after last ice age.

Would be interesting to know exactly where this is located, because parts of Chile would have been under ice cover at this time. Perhaps the mine is older than the artefacts which have been dated?

www.abc.net.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

Thank you for the article.

Flar and stag.

Interesting, around the same time Robert Bauval noticed the belt stars in Orion line up with the pyramids in Giza. They have since drifted due to the phenomenon known as precession, but it is this same mechanism through which they can date the alignment.

This thread is too important to get lost in all of the WIkiLeaks fodder...


This is an amazing discovery...

I agree with the poster above me, I took a break from writing my paper to read what's going on and I must say this is truly an interesting find.

Thanks for sharing ,this is a good news. Will they be exploited or be treated as a historical relics for touring?

so when do we rewrite the history books?

reply to post by whatisanameanyway


Bit of speculation here............ but remember all the occult symbology surrounding the trapped chilean miners?
What if they stumbled on something far greater than even this find, something that just had to be kept a secret?

Nice find btw, s+f

snip

The ancient mine was discovered near the town of Taltal, in the Antofagasta region, 1,100 kilometres north of Santiago, in October 2008, but its antiquity was not determined until tests were conducted this year in US and Polish laboratories.

From link.
.
google map link
Taltal, Chile

It amazes me, the things we uncover about our past. It would be cool if there are any interesting artefacts discovered here.
Anyway thanks for sharing

now wait did you all see the 40,000 year old mine at the end of the article? wtf? that sounds like someting else worth looking into or has it ben on here already?

Originally posted by buddybaney
now wait did you all see the 40,000 year old mine at the end of the article? wtf? that sounds like someting else worth looking into or has it ben on here already?

The oldest known mine on archaeological record is the "Lion Cave" in Swaziland. At this site, which by radiocarbon dating proves the mine to be about 43,000 years old, paleolithic humans mined mineral hematite, which contained iron and was ground to produce the red pigment ochre.[2][3] Mines of a similar age in Hungary are believed to be sites where Neanderthals may have mined flint for weapons and tools.[citation needed]

It beggars belief why the ancients would need red ochre oxide in such quantities if only for dying their clothes and painting the odd bison.

This being ATS and all that why not consider the possibility of mining iron oxide for use in thermite ?

Originally posted by The Djin

.... where Neanderthals may have mined flint for weapons and tools....

They mean the Neaderthals who walk around with big wooden sticks and little stone axes?

What an amazing find! I love things like this

Again our ancestors don't get enough credit for what they were able to accomplish.

South America has an interesting history and I love when new things like this come to light! Thanks for sharing this. It's nice to see something besides wiki leaks

NIce find....
kx

Originally posted by OrganicAnagram33
Interesting, around the same time Robert Bauval noticed the belt stars in Orion line up with the pyramids in Giza. They have since drifted due to the phenomenon known as precession, but it is this same mechanism through which they can date the alignment.

edit on 5-12-2010 by OrganicAnagram33 because: Spelling

I agree these dates crop-up as a time of major importance all over the world not just Egypt ... that time known as the 'First Time' I personally believe was global and a kind of grand 'dress rehearsal' in preperation for the upcoming 'Second Time' (see the blue link in my signature at the bottom of this post)


And to the OP thank-you so much for sharing this ... I hope it's not too long before some pictures emerge to go with this find ... and the older mines for that matter ... this is all new to me and suddenly I feel a research afternoon coming on

It's always exciting to hear about new stuff in different areas (thanks again)

Woody

Great find .. I just wanted to bump the thread so that it does not get sucked into oblivion by all those wikileaks threads . Thats why I like ATS , you can read about so many different great finds here

This is amazing.

I was wondering if anybody knew what they used the iron-oxide in religious ceremonies for? The article states they used it to dye clothes and in religious ceremonies, but what for exactly?
Face-painting, I assume?
Seems to be a lot of trouble for just that, so was wondering if there were any other reasons?

Didn't realise that humans were 'mining' that long ago, and to find out about the Swaziland mines was an added bonus.
I should really go exploring one day. Its not that far from here.

Thanks for sharing the story with us.

im not clued up with ancient history. someone explain why this is so amazing apart from the fact that this proved humans or some intelligent entity was mining these caves all that time ago. i mean what do the experts say homonids were doing this far back in time?