Prehistoric Babies Buried Under Dragon Rocks Believed to Have Extraordinary Power

WELLINGTON – In the 16th century BC, prehistoric peoples in what is now Armenia settled basalt stone 3.5 meters (9.8 ft) high on a wheelbarrow.

ALSO READ – China Finds Skull of ‘Dragon Man’, Allegedly New Species of Human

As reported by Science Alert, beneath the rock are buried the remains of an adult woman and two newborn children.

At first, researchers believed the babies were twins, but new analysis suggests a more complicated and extraordinary relationship.

Stones called “dragon stones” are stelae – upright stone slabs or columns – depicting images of animals. They were usually found in the mountains of present-day Armenia and neighboring regions of southern Georgia and Eastern Turkey.

It is thought that the stones were named after local folklore about dragons in the form of bulls, fish or snakes in the mountains, who functioned as guardians of water and thunder.

To date, around 150 dragon stones have been discovered. Typically, they are found collapsed and hidden in remote areas with lots of water, such as mountain meadows. There are thought to be three types of dragonstone identified by archaeologists:

Stones that look like animal remains, such as goats, sheep, cows and so on (vellus)

The dragon stone with two babies buried beneath it is an example of the vellus style. It shows the skin of a cow fallen on a rock. Its “skin,” as the researchers explain in their paper, “descends from the top of the rock backwards, ending at the tail in a multi-spiral bundle.”

“The ox’s ears and the horns with descending curves on either side of the head are clearly distinguishable. The fluid flowing from the ox’s mouth may represent water, blood, or a synecdoche of both.”