Mighty moose may be oldest such artwork in the world

A gigantic Stone Age chalk carving of a two kilometre-long moose could be the oldest ever discovered in the world, scientists in Russia believe.

The massive moose, carved into a hillside in the Southern Urals like Britain's Cerne Abbas Giant, is understood to have been carved by prehistoric man up to 8,000 years ago.



Archaeologists from the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute believe the moose was a message to primitive man's gods, as it can only be seen from above.

"We originally thought that the object, though large in size, was rather primitive - just two lines of large stones with smaller stones piled between them. Now it is clear that more complicated crushed stone and loam were used, among other things. Why this was done is still a mystery," said senior researcher Stanislav Grigoryev.