Heritage with Related Tags
Twyfelfontein or /Ui-//aes
Twyfelfontein is home to one of the largest concentrations of rock art in Africa. Most of the well-preserved rock art depicts rhinos, ostriches and giraffes. The site also includes six paintings of human and animal footprints, and rock shelters with figures carved in red ochre. Objects from two areas date back to the Late Stone Age. The site documents the ritual practices of hunter-gatherer communities in this part of southern Africa over a period of at least 2,000 years, with extensive and high-quality documentation, and eloquently illustrates the connection between ritual and economic practices of hunter-gatherers.
Göbekli Tepe
Located in the Görmüş Mountains in southeastern Anatolia, the site displays large circular, oval and rectangular megalithic structures built by hunter-gatherers during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period between 9,600 and 8,200 BC. The monuments were probably ritual-related and were likely funerary objects. The distinctive T-shaped columns, carved with images of wild animals, provide insight into the lifestyle and beliefs of people living in Upper Mesopotamia around 11,500 years ago.
Cultural Sites of Al Ain (Hafit, Hili, Bidaa Bint Saud and Oases Areas)
The Al Ain cultural sites (Hafit, Hili, Bidda bint Saud and the oasis area) are a group of properties that testify to the human settlement of the desert area since the Neolithic period, leaving behind many remains of prehistoric cultures. Notable remains of the property include circular stone tombs (circa 2500 BC), wells and various adobe buildings: residential buildings, towers, palaces and administrative buildings. In addition, Hili also has the oldest Aflaj irrigation system, which dates back to the Iron Age. These properties provide important testimony to the cultural transformation of the region from a hunter-gatherer society to a settled society.
Monumental Earthworks of Poverty Point
The Poverty Point Monumental Works are named for the 19th-century plantation adjacent to the site, which is located on slightly elevated, narrow terrain in the lower Mississippi River valley. The complex consists of five mounds, six concentric semi-elliptical ridges separated by shallow depressions, and a central plaza. It was built by a group of hunter-gatherers for residential and ceremonial purposes between 3,700 and 3,100 years ago. It is a remarkable achievement in North American earthen architecture, unmatched for at least 2,000 years.
Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan
The property comprises 17 archaeological sites in the southern part of Hokkaido Island and the northern part of the Tohoku region, with geography ranging from mountainous hills to plain lowlands, from inland bays to lakes and rivers. They provide unique testimony to the development of the pre-agricultural but sedentary Jomon culture and its complex spiritual belief system and rituals over a period of around 10,000 years. It demonstrates the emergence, development, maturity and adaptability of a sedentary hunter-fisher-gatherer society to environmental changes from around 13,000 BC. The expression of Jomon spirituality is present in tangible forms in objects such as lacquerware, clay tablets with footprints, the famous bulging-eyed dolls, and ritual sites including earthworks and large stone circles with a diameter of more than 50 meters. This collection of properties testifies to a rare and very early development of pre-agricultural sedentary life from its emergence to maturity.
Settlement and Artificial Mummification of the Chinchorro Culture in the Arica and Parinacota Region
The site consists of three parts: Faldeo Norte del Morro de Arica, Colón 10, and Desembocadura de Camarones, located in the countryside about 100 km south. Together, they bear witness to a culture of maritime hunter-gatherers who inhabited the arid and harsh northern coast of the Atacama Desert in the far north of Chile from about 5450 BC to 890 BC. The site is the oldest known archaeological evidence of artificial mummification, with cemeteries containing both artificial mummies and mummies preserved by environmental conditions. Over time, the Chinchorro people perfected complex funerary practices, systematically dismembering and reassembling the bodies of men, women and children from across the social spectrum to create “artificial” mummies. These mummies have material, sculptural and aesthetic qualities that are presumed to reflect the fundamental role of the deceased in Chinchorro society. Tools made of mineral and plant materials, as well as simple tools made of bone and shell, have been found at the site, which would have allowed for the intensive exploitation of marine resources, providing unique testimony to the complex spirituality of the Chinchorro culture.
Chongoni Rock-Art Area
The area, located in a forested granite hill on the central highlands of Malawi, covers an area of 126.4 square kilometres and contains 127 sites, making it the richest region of rock art in Central Africa. They reflect the relatively scarce rock art tradition of farmers, as well as paintings by BaTwa hunter-gatherers who have lived in the area since the Late Stone Age. The ancestors of the Chewa farmers, who lived here since the Late Iron Age, continued to paint rock art until the 20th century. The symbolic art on the rocks is closely associated with women and still has cultural significance among the Chewa people, and the sites are actively associated with ceremony and ritual.