These devilish-looking horned skulls spotted by climbers in the Italian Alps have been identified by UK scientists as belonging to prehistoric wild goats that died more than 7,000 years ago.
The scary remains that include fragments of fur and complete skulls with their impressive -looking antlers were found by mountaineers at an altitude of 3,228 metres (10,590 feet) on the Lodner mountain in the Oetztal Alps in South Tyrol, Italy.
The Oetztal Alps was also the location where the body of Otzi the Iceman was found, whose body had been mummified some time between 3350 and 3105 BC when he died and was covered by a glacier, only to be discovered in September 1991.
During the extensive examination of the body, they found that one of the meals that he had consumed before his death had been Ibex like the ones whose bodies have now been found.
The Ibex with its impressive and this is a type of wild goat known to have been kept by ancient man. Images of ancient ibexes included in pottery and jewellery dating back up to 2,000 years BC have also been found.
But the discovery of the Ibex bones earlier this year, is 1,700 years older than even Oetzi.
The four mountaineers who made the gruesome discovery were identified as Stefan Pirpamer, Tobias Brunner, Arno Ebnicher and Luca Mercuri who called the police afterwards in July.
Forestry workers later recovered 15 carcasses and unaware that they were so old, had gathered up bones, skulls and fur that was then analysed in a special gene laboratory led by researchers Heidi Christine Hauffe and Matteo Girardi from the Edmund Mach Foundation in San Michele, in Veneto.
From here they were submitted to the Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for radiocarbon dating. The radiocarbon dating method determines the age of an object containing organic material by using the characteristics of radiocarbon, which is a radioactive isotope of carbon. Using this method, the Northern Irish scientists were able to confirm that the remains are around 7,018 years old.
The ibexes reportedly lived in the Neolithic period, also known as the New Stone Age, which began about 12,000 years ago and lasted until the transitional period of the Copper Age from about 6,500 years ago.
A statement obtained by Newsflash from the Autonomous Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol quotes South Tyrol Governor Arno Kompatscher saying: “Such finds are good news. We will now let science do its work and then give the finds the place they deserve.”
The ibexes’ remains which are currently stored in the premises of the St. Leonhard in Passeier Forest Station, will soon be handed over to the Archaeology Office.
A research group from the Austrian Natural History Museum should determine which investigations need to be carried out further and how the remains should be stored.
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Story By: Georgina Jadikovska, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
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