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Comment by alexwolfe | Hacker News Reader

This is one of the most amazing discoveries I have seen recently. The sheer weight of that stone is absolutely insane. I'm still a little stunned this was just discovered.

I would love to know what the people who made this were thinking. To create a work of art that detailed and massive just to bury 75% of it seems very odd. I'm sure there was a good reason to do it (in their minds at least), I'd love to know what that was.

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Just to ameliorate possible confusion, we've known about the bodies since at least the 90's, though possibly earlier. True, that's relatively recent given how old they are, but it's not desirable for readers to come away having concluded that we've just discovered them, like, yesterday.

Thanks for the clarification. Should have guessed that by the clothes in the photos ;). The 90's is still very recent. I'm interested in hearing some of there theories behind why/if they were buried so deeply.

Making stuff and burying it is very common in archeology according to my (limited) knowledge. Chucking stuff as offerings into springs, holes etc as offerings. Burin it with dead people (anyone under that stone is now 2 dimensional). But I do agree that this seems odd - half burying...

Allows you to prop it up

Guess it could be a case of bad foundation, causing it to slowly sink into the ground over many years. Judging the type of ground of the excavation site at the photo, it seems to contain a rather high amount of clay, which is a terrible foundation.

> Making stuff and burying it is very common in archeology ...

Göbekli Tepe in Turkey is an interesting example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe

Maybe them just knowing the art is there is good enough. Like painters who paint the back sides of fences[1], or watchmakers who make intricate engravings on the internal parts, because 'God can see it'[2].

[1] http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/sci_tech/biographer-rev...

[2] http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_seymour_how_beauty_feels.ht...

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