SOMETIMES, looking at a vast empty piece of land we wonder wonder why it is so desolate, and the fact that no one ever inhabited the place. Earth has had many kinds of races of people and civilisations that have inhabited it and even left traces of their existence; civilisations — that have been long lost and forgotten, quite a few of them mysterious and puzzling as to their origin and practices.

Many researchers have unearthed artefacts, bones of some living beings of an unknown era or a carving of an ancient text, waiting to be decoded (deciphered), studied and understood. And every time archaeologists and experts unearth and bring new mysteries to light, we are reminded that we have just barely scratched the surface of the untold and unknown history of this planet.

Surprisingly, as we progress technologically, history seems to take us further and further back in time, showing us images and glimpses into our colourful past as a human race.

Which is exactly what happened when a Russian researcher, Alexander Shestakov, who was going through satellite imagery in 2011, studying images taken from space by Google Earth. Around the Ural Mountain range in Western Siberia, a large geoglyph of a moose seemed to unfold before his eyes. According to Siberian Times, dated November 18th, 2014, the images that were being studied by many archaeologists and experts helped locate the oldest geoglyph yet to be discovered. Dated as being 6,000 years old, the large outline of a moose is older than the famous Nazca lines of Peru and other such ancient markings by several thousand years!

What’s really making archaeologists scratch their heads is the fact that there is no evidence that a civilisation existed in the area that was refined enough to make this huge geoglyph.

By the way, a geoglyph is when an ancient shape or marking is made on the ground just like a carving on a rock or ancient ruin is called an hieroglyph. To come back to the moose, no one knows its purpose. And the size of the entire shape is quite a puzzle indeed as it could only be made out from space. It is situated near Lake Zyratkul in the Ural Mountains and stretches across an area of 900 feet. The outline of the animal clearly shows four legs, antlers with a long muzzle. Interestingly, the tools found near the site show that they were used by adults and children.

Researcher Stanislav Grigoryev stated, “Judging by the different sizes of the tools, we can assume they were used by both adults and children. We can assume it means that everyone participated in creating the moose. But it was not a kind of slave labour of children. They were involved to share common values, to join something important to all people”.

Located at a height of 2,800 feet, the lines or channels were dug into the ground 33 feet wide, at first. Then it was filled with stones, making a white outlined figure that must have stood out against the green grass surrounding it. To give it more character presumably, different kinds of stone filling were put in the different parts of the shape. The hooves were filled with a mixture of clay and crushed stones and the hind leg had larger stones on the sides with smaller ones filling the inside. It is still not clear to archaeologists why and who made this giant geoglyph but they do know that they represented symbols of unity to ancient people.

The mystery really lies in the fact that the fishing and hunting people who lived there during the time were not capable of such precision in making stone-cutting tools nor has any evidence of the people who made the moose come to light as to who they were and what kind of culture they belonged to. The only way archeologists think they can do an in-depth study is by doing more study of the images taken from space. But the question as to how these people knew what kind of measurements and precision was required to make a shape visible from space and why make it in the first place is anyone’s guess.

There are some theories put forward by experts. One is that they were made as sacred worship sites as these were times before people were advanced enough to make statues of their gods.

The other is that they were astronomical indicators for seasons like Summer and Winter Solstices and movements of the stars. Some also think that they were some kind of territory markers to let surrounding tribes know of the ownership or a ‘mascot’. Researchers also think that ancient people made geoglyphs to dance along the lines and perform rituals like asking for rain, health etc.

And now we come to the most intriguing one — aliens! Could these be the landing sites for spaceships? As ridiculous as it sounds to some, the Nazca Lines in Peru have a geoglyph in the shape of an astronaut, or at least looks like one! But one wonders, why would people or beings from another planet want to have shapes of monkeys, spiders or a giant Russian moose as their landing strips? Or did these extremely ancient civilisations have their own airplanes so that they knew which shape on ground to land on? Pick your favourite theory.