wow. thats pretty cool. the one of the mother and children is sad. wonder what happened to them.

That Suchomimus is terrifying! Hopefully we won't be finding any of their DNA trapped in amber.

#11 .. that giraffe is incredible. wow

Great photos!

#5

To whomever writes the captions. I think you mean "Nigerien", a "Nigerian" is someone from Nigeria, not Niger.

A domesticated giraffe with a leach through its nose? Trying to figure out how to managed to get something through the nose of a giraffe... thousands of years ago.
Nice shots from probably the most remote places on earth!

Typo fixed, thanks!

Great photos, Great people thanks.

Just an observation but these people seemed to take amazingly good care of their teeth. They look better than the teeth of many people I know today.

#4 amazing...

On #9, Never leave without THE 'human bone manual',
Hey, squeleton Jack, what are you dreaming of...
Arf, pretty funny.

Hey Osas-
Regarding #5.... I believe the first caption was correct. They were excavating in the country of NIGER not Nigeria. Check a map, it is north of and bigger than Nigeria, and Nigeria is NOT in the Sahara. So to the editor you had it right the first time.

My bad Osas-
Hat in hand: I read your comment incorrectly

Wait a second. Are you saying that there was climate change BEFORE people drove SUVs? Give me a break.

I seriously thought #4 was a computer made photo. Turns out it's real...wow...

Interesting
#5 was disheartening, at-least some-where in the world we could be without arms

Wow amazing photos, the one with the blue scarf is astonishing!!

Cheers Chan from TheJunction

120 degrees ? Celsius ?
woooooow ! I can't remember this hot when i lived in Algeria.

on comment #9: you have to consider that all these people probably died very young (by today`s standards), hence the good teeth.
great pics as usual.

nice

have they found it...

FYI, Caption 15 says that it's in the Gobi Desert, which is in China. This is probably a misprint.

@22 - sorry I wasn't clearer before (I updated the intro) a couple of these photos are from other expeditions as well.

to add up on #9 and #19, teeth are in good shape on these skeletons because of the regimen of these people. Probably a lot less sugar (flours of any kind) than what we're used to today. Tooth decay appeared with agriculture, not before.

To answer some of your questions and comments about my photos...

1) The scientists have not determined what killed the mother and two children yet, though they are investigating. They do know that it was not any physical violence that would have left marks on the bones, as they have seen none. There are four basic ways in which people can die suddenly and simultaneously - a personal accident like a drowning (they were on a part of an 800 mile wide lake system), a natural accident like an earthquake or tornado, a very fast acting disease (all hands were joined before rigor set in) or some sort of sacrifice/ killing.

2) The average life span of stone age people was a mere 20-25 years which meant they were having children much before that.

3) The teeth in these photos were quite nice, but most were ground down to the nerves by ingesting sand. As anyone who has been in Timbuktu in neighboring Mali knows, "Sand is one of the main spices in Saharan food ". We also found many skeletons with the two front teeth knocked out as you see in modern day Sudan to the east.

4) The temperatures got as high as 132F degrees but your body adjusts to it by shifting your comfort zone up by about 20 degrees over the first two weeks. You actually start to feel cold at 70 degrees during the night when sleeping outside under the stars, and reasonably comfortable up to about 110 degrees.

5) The scientists say the climate shift in the Sahara was caused by something called a Milankovitch cycle in which the earth tilts slightly every 100,000 years and weather can change radically. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles for more info.

I will answer more questions as they come up.

Great photos Mike and thanks once again to Alan for providing a forum for us to view.

Mike if you are answering questions, what was your personal interest to get involved with paleontology, and these particular excavations that we see here?

Great photos above and on your website - I detect an interest in the living and the long-dead.

Cheers, JB

Wow, and now we get (precise and very interesting) answers from the photographer... This blog is getting better and better. Kodos!

"The average daily temperature in this part of the Sahara Desert was 120 degrees"
Uh, that isn't possible. Maybe the average HIGH temperature, but no place on this planet has anywhere close to a mean temperature of 120.

These pictures are amazing! The one of the giraffe engraved into stone is great. And just to say a little about the Milankovitch cycles, there are actually 3 of them, those being obliquity, precession, and eccentricity. I believe the one that involves a shifting in the tilt of the earth is obliquity in which the earth's tilt has a range of about 22 to 25 degrees.

Do you have many breathing problems from all the sand? Especially if you wake up with sand on your face.

I don't know how you deal with those sorts of temperatures. Here in South Australia we had a heatwave of over 39C (102F) for about three weeks solid and I nearly went crazy by the end of it - I certainly didn't get used to it.

Wonderful photos.

"Interestingly, ancient sand has a memory of when it last saw light."

I've been watching this blog for the past few months. It's one of my "must see" blogs. It's always been about the pictures.

The captions like the above are absolutely incredible. I had no idea sand could be dated like this.

Thank you for such an interesting site to visit.

amazing photos. kids should be reading about stuff like this.

I love the way these images convey the humanity and eloquence of these ancient people – the care they gave in burial practices, their art, possible domestication of animals, and the fine tools they crafted (that I saw when I viewed the Green Sahara images on the photographer’s web site).

To respond to a few more questions and comments...

1) (Justin #26) I had traveled to about fifty countries back in 2000, but I was looking for a longer term photo project and a little more adventure. I had always been fascinated by dinosaurs and archeology, and a mutual friend introduced me to renowned dino hunter Paul Sereno. He invited me on his upcoming expedition to the Sahara and I have been on five now and one other with the Leakeys in Kenya. Personally, there is something so fascinating about holding a hundred million year old dinosaur claw in your hand or seeing the face of our ancestors that lived 9,000 years ago and lived so long before the pyramid builders.

2) (Jason #28) You are right - it was the daily HIGH temperature of 120F and I assume Alan will update that.

3) (Sian #30) We do breathe in some sand as it is always in the air, but if it gets too heavy, we all have bandanas and sheshes (like the blue scarf in the photo) to cover our faces. In the Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia where it is much worse, we learned to not sleep with our faces up very often or we would get coated with sand. Eventually the extreme winds even destroyed the heavy Chinese Army tents in the photo, and we found an adobe house to rent and got to sleep indoors, well sort of.

4) (Eric #31) I was constantly impressed by how much the scientists were able to discover with the seemingly smallest amount of information or specimens. As an example, they were also able to determine what people ate by analyzing the minute amounts of strontium, copper and other elements in the skeleton’s teeth.

5) (Ross #32) I have photographed many of Paul Sereno’s expeditions. He and his wife, Gabrielle Lyon, started a non-profit organization called Project Exploration ten years ago, that teaches science to low-income, inner city kids. They also take the kids on actual dinosaur expeditions to Wyoming to find and dig up T. Rex and other dinosaurs. The kids have gotten scholarships and gone off to succeed in places like Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley and the University of Chicago. There is a great deal of inspiring information for kids and teachers on their web site at www.ProjectExploration.org .

Mike Hettwer

Great photos Mike. I was wondering if the extreme temperatures –not to mention sand– caused any equipment problems with your gear? Did you take any special precautions to keep your cameras and lenses in good condition for the entire expedition? Thanks for the great photos.

Mike, outstanding photos ! Last one is the best. I love the angle and the DOF. Question for you though: How, exactly, did you keep your equipment clean in such harsh environments ?

This blog should win a Pulitzer !

Lovely pictures as ever but one niggling point which I often see is that the captions refer to the "Sahara Desert", however the word "Sahara" translates to "Desert" in Arabic so in effect you are calling it "The Desert Desert" and it should instead simply be The Sahara.

Temperatures in Celsius as well as Farenheit would be nice as many of us don't know anything about Farenheit. (Would also allow to avoid comments like "120 degrees - impossible").
Great selection, as usual!

all this only proves, that there cannot be a god. these humans predate the time of the fairy tale book called "bible" by far...

I always wondering if they are really fossils or just sculptures by the archaeologists. Just kidding.. :D
Amazing!

Quite breathtaking and enlightening. Assists in factualizing our long and fascinating human history.

great pics.. Thanks for the little mind travel

Regarding the writing of the Bible (lol, #39). How does this prove there cannot be a God? The existence of God in no way depends on the existence of a written Bible. God existed far before anything was written about Him. Fossils pre-dating the Bible in no way prove or disprove God's existence.

Hey Mike--
Wow! Awesome photos!
I've been doing video professionally for years (including documentaries) and also enjoy still photography as a hobby. My questions--
1. Can you please tell us a little about the equipment you used--camera type, etc. Anything special to deal with the harsh conditions?
2. Was there a video crew there? This type of thing screams to be on PBS or Discovery! If there is a DVD, where can I get it?
Thanks!

A few more answers…

(Brian #35 and Matt #36) Surprisingly the heat does not really affect the equipment much these days. On the other hand, the almost constantly blowing sand gets in everything and everywhere. Normally I don’t use a lens cap as the camera is almost always up on my eye - I just use a UV filter over the lens and swap them out when needed. In the Sahara and the Gobi Deserts, I do use lens caps more often, I put the cameras in a ziplock bag when I am not using it, swap lenses only inside our Land Rovers, and clean the cameras and lenses gently and regularly.

The heat definitely affected the slide and B/W film I used to shoot with 5-10 years ago. The film would curl up so much from heat that I would have to bury the large Pelikan case of it a couple feet under the sand and under a truck. Storing it in this way, lowered the temperature by about 20 degrees and caused many fewer problems. I do not miss the days of lugging around eighty pounds of highly sensitive film around the desert.

I shoot only digital and travel with 3 cameras, 3 laptops and 3 USB back up hard drives for each expedition. It takes about three full days of travel each way to get to these places so I don’t want to have to return to the US for more equipment and lose shooting time. Fortunately I have had only one laptop break down in all the time I have spent on expeditions. Normally shooting starts before dawn until about 11AM and then from 3pm until dusk, when the light is best. I backup and edit photos each day from 11-3 when the sun is not as good, unless something interesting is going on with the excavations. I work every day for about 15 hours, and on longer expeditions that can be 90 days or more in a row. Everything is solar powered, including the satellite system I built for e-mail and sending stories/photos back to the US. We get e-mails daily and we usually follow the national news, baseball playoffs and Chicago Bears football games on the web.

Photo #15
Was the slipping in of a photo from the Gobi intentional or an error??
Another amazing place on the Earth but thousands of miles from the Sahara.

Great photos, great insight in to our past.

Regarding the post on the condition of their teeth; it's sad to say that our modern diet has completely destroyed our dentition. Indigenous peoples with balanced organic diets had strong, straight teeth and even jaw structure. When sugars are introduced, all hell breaks loose, from one generation to the next.

Discouraging fact of modern life.

Also regarding the Bible comment (lol, #39), we don't need to turn this blog into another religion-bashing opportunity. In the Christian beliefs, God created everything at the beginning of time. Today's recording of history is based on the birth of His son, "year 0". The Bible began production maybe fifty years or so later.

Now, let's get back to the great discussion of these amazing expeditions.

Mike what will happen to all of the archaeological finds once the excavation and examinations are complete?

These pictures are amazing! I agree with an earlier comment where someone suggested it looks like the dinosuar pic is a computer generate image. That is truly incredible. The angle that pic was taken at really adds so much to the shot. That giraffe pic is amazing as well. Thank you so much for sharing your work and experiences. The pic with the mother and children seems to be generating some comments. How did they know there were flowers above and below the bodies? Also, were there any skeletons discovered that did appear to have some sort of trauma as the cause of death? Again, thanks for sharing....

More answers…

1) (Dave #44) You asked about my equipment and if there was a DVD - My main equipment is a pair of Canon 1DS Mark IIs (16MP), the 3 standard Canon F2.8 zoom lenses going from 16-200mm, 3 Speedlight flash units and 120 GB of CF memory cards. There was no video/DVD shot that I was aware of, but we will be going back to excavate the other two-thirds of the skeletons after the rebellion is over.

2) (Jim #45) The Gobi photo was intentionally added by our editor Alan Taylor, who I should say has just done a wonderful job bringing all of these great photos to us every week. I think he wanted to focus on the Green Sahara archeology story, but also show some other interesting aspects of dinosaur expeditions as well.

3) (Irving #49) You asked about what happens with the finds - The human and dinosaur finds are cleaned up and studied for several years, after which they are returned to the country of origin. Scientists from Niger are flown to the prep labs in the US to share information and learn from the many scientists directly. U of C professor Paul Sereno who co-led the Green Sahara expedition, is a big proponent of helping the local country. With Niger, he is currently trying to get the dinosaur fossil areas turned into a UNESCO World Heritage site for protection, and raising funds for a Niger museum to hold all of the many specimens he has found.

4) (Cid #50) You asked about the flowers in the grave and bone trauma - We had a great team of about 15 top international scientists, cartographers and grad students on the expeditions, including a paleobotanist (a scientist that studies very old plants). She sampled the sand below and above the major skeletons as they were excavated to look for flower pollen since the actual flowers had broken down long ago. In the sand from the grave of the mother and two children, she microscopically found large amounts of pollen from the wool flower (if I remember correctly), indicating that someone placed these flowers above and below the bodies as they were buried in the sand some 6,000 years ago. You can also see a cleaner, reconstructed cast of the triple burial with everyone holding hands on my site - http://www.hettwer.com under Dinosaur and Archeology Specimens.

In terms of trauma to the bodies, the scientists found no telltale signs of violence on the bones. They did however find many individuals with spiral fractures to limb bones. As I understand it, these are unique and severe blunt force fractures that the scientists thought could have been caused while the ancient people were fishing or rafting. Both of the cultures here fished the giant lake that bordered the cemeteries, as we found many carved bone harpoons and fishhooks. Some of the fish were up to six feet long and weighed up to 300 pounds, based on the bones that were found. The harpoons were so big in fact that that they knew these fish were not found close to the shore, and so they probably floated logs or crude rafts to go out and hunt them with harpoons. One of the ways that the injuries could have occurred was if the inhabitants were floating on logs with their legs hanging over the sides and they were crushed when hit by another large log. They can see the injuries healed as well.

Please note though that I am not a scientist so all of this should be vetted by them and their publications. You can see the original science paper on this discovery on PLoS One at: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0002995 . It has many interesting photos of the harpoons, jewelry, pottery, tools and weapons.

Very beatiful!!! than you very much
I study arqueologhy, in the school in Uruguay, Durazno Whin my children.

Thank you so much for the great images and information. My daughter is 8, and last night out of the blue stated that she wants to be a paleontologist (though she couldn't pronounce it, she was very clear about what it is!). She has twice been to Vietnam to volunteer at an orphanage, and I'm wondering if anyone knows of programs that might be appropriate for her age. We have done the Museum of Science and Industry summer Camp, any other ideas? Thanks!

awesome

Wow! #5 is kind of Indiana Jones-que, but real. Amazing!

Amazing... It reminded me in my heart why I wanted so much to be an archeologyst... Thank you for the journey!

big is ever

To Mike Hettwer, I wanted to say thank you not only for these amazing shots, but also for taking the time to answer tons of questions in the comments. I'm sure you are very busy and it means a lot that you are willing to provide all this additional information.

There is a wealth of information and knowledge in your additional comments...hopefully it can all be compiled somewhere for people to learn from.

A few more answers…

1) (Natalie #53) You asked about science programs for kids - I assume you live in Chicago since you went to the camp at the Museum of Science and Industry. There is another great organization on Chicago’s South Side called Project Exploration, and it was started by Paul Sereno, who is one of the top paleontologists in the world, and his wife Gabrielle Lyon. Most of the photos here were shot on Paul’s expeditions.

They do an online catalog of a 150 summer science programs for kids in the Midwest US. It’s called Discover Your Summer and you can see the 2008 version at: http://www.projectexploration.org/dys.htm. You can call them at 773-834-7614 or email them at dys@projectexploration.org to find out what they will do in 2009. Please also see my post #36 – item #5 for more information on Project Exploration.

2) (Mark #58) Thanks for the kind words. I am happy to answer everyone’s questions, as good photos sometimes have a context that makes them much more interesting, and more behind the scenes information usually tells a far better story.

# 3 looks like Mars

wow wow wowwwwwww amazing....

Thank you for your continuous responses to the questions. The images are quite captivating, and thanks to Allan for making it possible. I could not help but notice the previous posts that brought up the subject of religion/faith, and I have to say that this is not such a negative aspect as some readers may have reacted to. On the other hand, I think it is quite interesting how many readers go beyond the visual contrary of the images (usually) posted here and discuss emotional and metaphysical subjects, which I think adds a lot of dimension/(cultural)richness to those images, and only proves point to the power of those images that incited deeper exchange of content/opinion in the viewers beyond the ordinary surface admiration of composition/colour/aesthetics or political agenda etc. All under the condition of tolerance (i.e: no insults or defamation of others)

After seeing the images and reading the posts I came to extracting these verses from the Quran (c.1429) which adds an Islamic perspective to the images, and I would like to ask Mike Hettwer about his opinion (since he did a lot of traveling around archeological sites) about this subject, especially that it deals with the reasons behind the disappearance of many civilizations (pompei, machu picchu, etc.).

(these two verses come after each other)

22:45 And many a township did We destroyed, while it was given to wrong- doing, so that it lies in ruins (up to this day), and (many) a deserted well and lofty castle

22:46 Have they not travelled through the land, and have they hearts wherewith to understand and ears wherewith to hear? Verily, it is not the eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts which are in the chests that grow blind.

(this one is from a separate chapter)

28:58 And how many populations We destroyed, which exulted in their life (of ease and plenty)! now those habitations of theirs, after them, are deserted,- All but a (miserable) few! and We are their heirs!

Thank you for your time

Very important for the world !

The giraffe should be listed on some sort of world heritage site to help protect it! Casts might be made to record its condition. And it should be covered with some sort of window now that it's exposed to the elements and 80mph sand - or it should be reburied in a deep layer of sand.

Simply awesome example of ancient artistic merit. I figure giraffes were domesticated as juveniles, explaining the nose ring. Unless of course it's a hoax-carving from the crop circle people.

Excellent photos. I love the perspective on the crocodile jaw! Menacing.

amazing photos....it's really sad about what's becoming of Africa,so many problems.

that rock carving or the giraffe was just stunning.

HI I LIKED YOUR PICTURES AND THE COMENTS TOO GREAT WORK YOU ARE ACHEVING A LOT KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK I AM SURE GOD IS WATCHING

Maybe the giraffe was a pet from birth (?) Then again, there are those pesky poison darts that paralyze such animals; that's one way to catch a giraffe, though I vote for the magic...

Not sure how, though the giraffe gets my vote out of all the wonders; there's someone soul-love recorded in there for sure!

Amazing photos

BIG PIC.........

tudo isso só pode ser um sonho parabens

great pic's............and nice collection.....

you are soooo lucky to have all the great opportunities to captured all these amazing expeditions..simply great pictures!

Thanks for the educative and informative articles.We can suggest that it were climatic changes that decimated the entire populations.Starvation, and lack of any water in the desolate regions for animals and human beings.
Looking at the pictures and the landscape in the background,we can suggest a fertile meadow land with full of lakes which have since dried up.
we can conclude that the inhabitants were vulnerable to climate changes and could not reverse the trends.

sorry i want to add information .
this pictures about african deserts , it is ordinary to see this like that there , and i think it unsuitble pictures for human bodies like that .
if you to see real and nice pictures ask about arabian peninsula .
thanks .

This is absolutely fantastic. It is wondrous to have people like this to give us more of our history. We are a beautiful complex planet........keeping us curious and humble.....

very good

Definitely one of the best posts here in quite a while not because of the pics themselves but the commentary provided by Mike Hettwer. For me, it elevates this entire post to another level as the information he provided regarding these pics was extremely interesting! Thanks Alan and Mike!

More answers to your questions…

1) (Faris #62) You asked about the collapse of societies, and of those who lived in Gobero. In his excellent book Collapse, Jared Diamond identified the main contributors of the collapse of past societies and they were:

- Deforestation and habitat destruction
- Soil problems related to fertility, salinization etc.
- Overfishing and overhunting
- Population growth and the impact of too many people
- Effects of introduced species on native species
- Water management and access

We know from the geologists and other scientists who studied the area, that the desertification and lack of water was probably caused by natural climate change and the Milankovitch Cycle – This ultimately led to its abandonment twice.

2) (Bruce #64, Ig #66, Michael #68) You all had commented about the giraffe carvings - If you go to the giraffe photo above and blow it up, you can see there is a juvenile giraffe trailing the adult giraffe, and the juvenile has a leash on its nose also (To enlarge the photo on a PC, hit “Control and Plus sign” several times, and to shrink it down hit “Control and Minus sign”). The scientists do not know how they were tamed.

As you look closer, you can also see the shoulder area where a piece has unfortunately been removed by thieves as well. The carving is in the Touareg area of north central Niger and they now have full time guards who accompany any of the few visitors in order to protect it (the Touaregs are the famous blue men and purple men of the Sahara as identified by the color of their clothes). The site is already part of a UNESCO World Heritage site along with the nearby Air Mountains, but having the guards helps more. While they are degrading somewhat, also note the giraffes are carved in the extremely hard black granite, so they should last a long time with protection. Some scientists think it may have taken the equivalent of one person working 8-10 years to carve this, using only the stone tools which were available at the time. Another amazing thing about the site is just sat there for 8-10,000 years, before it was first written up in 1987.

For much more detail, go to http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/giraffe/index.php. If you are ever in Washington D.C. and want to see the actual 20 foot giraffe molding they made of the site, you can go the courtyard of National Geographic building at 17th and M streets. Interestingly, Niger still has wild giraffes about an hour outside its capital. We regularly see them crossing the road on the fifteen hour drive from the capital, Niamey, to the base compound in Agadez.

'Green' is the very last idea that these photos suggest. Apart from that, it is a beautiful work

Thank you for sharing!
I am an anthropologist- and bones rock my world....

I have gotten several e-mails like this about the solar powered satellite systems and have posted the answer below.

Question:
“I just finished looking at your photo's on The Big Picture. After reading the comments portion I noticed you mentioned using solar for a power source. I was wondering if you could tell me what brand, or source you used for powering all the equipment you took on a trip like this…The idea of a trip like this fascinates me. Thank you for sharing your images on The Big Picture, and thank you for your time in this matter.” – Paul M.

Answer:
The overall process is a bit technical: The solar panels charge 12V car batteries, which feed the 12VDC to 120VAC inverter, which powers the satellite and laptop/backup drives.

Solar Panels
Depending on how big a package you can take on an airplane and assuming you are in a very sunny place, you need about 70-100 watts of solar power. This will cost about $200-300. I use two 40W Kyocera and GE panels for the their smaller size and portability, but you can use almost any panels. Flexible, rollable solar panels are available also but they are generally less powerful and much more costly. It takes about a day to charge a hundred amp-hour car battery which lasts 1-2 days. I usually have four car batteries in the desert and cycle between them. The solar cells attach directly to the batteries in parallel (as long as they have the standard protection diode in them).

Power Inverter
The inverter converts the 12V DC car battery power to the 120VAC (same as what comes out your wall socket at home), so you can power a standard computer and satellite system. It should cost about $200-300 for a good one of about 250-400 Watts.

Satellite System
I use several systems for satellites and the best is the packet switched Telenor RBGAN system, which many photojournalists in Iraq and Afghanistan use, as it is much lower cost than the circuit switched technologies. It's between $1000-1500 for the system and works very well. Here is a write up on usage costs from a non profit - http://www.humaninet.org/wis/satcom/RBGANBWTips.shtm .

Perhaps the man with the finger in his mouth was trying to induce vomiting because he was very sick at the moment, but failed and eventually went to his death (the middle finger is also the longer of the hand, more apt to reach the throat).

Absolutely astounding, mind blowing. I can't wait to show my husband these marvelous photos and the subject matter leaves me speechless. How exciting and spectacular. I'll be coming back often for an update.
By the way this does not prove that there is no creator, just that the myths man made up to explain his own existance are recent but this world and the galaxies that go on to infinity declare a greater power than we can even imagine.
My favourite picture so far is that ginormous jaw in picture 4. I wonder who that reminds me of??
Thanks once again for giving us the priveledge of sharing these wonders with you.

These pictures are aboslutely beautiful and inspiring.....its is like seeing photos from Mars. Thank you for sharing these. Does any one know of community-based tourism / english speaking guides who have done trips here? I want to go. Check out my website to see what we do. I would love to help through ecotourism if I can. www.greenedventures.com

"As I understand it, these are unique and severe blunt force fractures that the scientists thought could have been caused while the ancient people were fishing or rafting."

or perhaps while catching giraffe ....

wow unique, and these photographs hold my thoughts for a moment.....

So beautiful pictures, but place to!!!!

Its really nice how we can find out more in the deserts...

Wish there were a couple more pics of the dinos

this photos are very beautiful and can i have a new photo in my mail

really great, GOD bless u , pl send photos on my mail

Love these pictures. They take me places I can't get to. If I understood correctly, this desert had a lake long time ago. Does it mean these skeletons were originally at the bottom of a lake? And what I found interesting was the position of bodies. They are not stretched out as we do these days..but on a side with knees up..

The fetal positioning of the bodies is a common way to bury the dead in many cultures. The introduction of western ways and their religions (at least where I am in the pacific) is when you begin to find burials in an extended position.

Amazing pictures. I keep coming back to them over and over and have made photo #12 my desktop. This is a wonderful site and these pictures in particular make me remember once again why I got into archaeology.

Maybe it's just me but I can't get over how perfect the teeth were onthe skeletons. It seemed like each skeleton had perfectly straight, beautiful teeth. I don't know why this amazes me so much but, WOW!

Wow !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Completely Amazed with the photos !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Exactly what I needed for the presentation !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The photos rock !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wish U to just keep sending awesome photos like these on my mail ????????????????????

Thanks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nice!!!!IM DOING A PROJECT ABOUT IT!!!!

COOL!!!!

Stunning work!

GOD PICTCHER

isto ai é tudo mentira de vocês

Very nice - thanks for sharing. I just got back from a mini trip to the Sahara. The wonderful stories and captions were great, but I especially appreciates the info about your equipment. Keep up the great work!