Sacred Cave Where Ancient Lions Were Sacrificed Discovered

Scientists have found a huge collection of animal bones that go back to 60,000 years inside the Ural Mountains of Russia., according to dailymail.

They found over 500 bones and fragments inside the Imanai cave, in the republic of Bashkiria. Experts are sure that they were giant cave lions.

Being the "largest-ever discovery of remains of the extinct creature", archaeologists say that the animals were probably sacrifices by ancient men.

The cave lion lived in and around Europe from 370,000 to 12,000 years ago, labelled the Eurasian cave lion.

Their size was 25 per cent larger than modern lions, and they stood around 3ft (one metre) tall.

Even though they were the compatriots of Neanderthals, exhibited in cave paintings, they did not live inside caves. They were in and around Europe from 370,000 to 12,000 years ago.

Along with their prey, the cave bears and giant deer, the lions were wiped out by the Quaternary extinction event.

Pavel Kosintsev, from the regional Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology in Yekaterinburg, told The Siberian Times: "We found about 500 bones and fragments of bones of the giant cave lion. But there could be more, after we finish with sorting the collection.Such a large quantity of giant cave lion bones at one site is really unique, the only one in the world so far discovered."

About five or six lions' bones were covered in soil more than 91 metres inside the cave. However, it was not normal for healthy giant cave lions to wander off so far.

"Usually lions did not go so deep into the cave, it is not typical for them," said the scientist.

Being of religious significance for ancient men, the animals were sacrificed to their gods, even though the names of these gods and the practices were not known.

Hence, men would kill these lions not for food but for religious sacrifice.

"The spearheads are the only sign of human activity - and it is also quite strange,' Mr Kosintev added.

"If ancient people lived in this cave, they should have left the traces of making the spearheads, and bones of the animals which people ate. Here we see only the spearheads and it is further evidence in favour of the hypothesis that it was a sacred place. People did not live here, they used this place for some other purposes - most likely as a place of sacrifice."

"The recent findings, from the lower layers, can be older, up to 60,000 years ago," Mr Kostintsev said.

Perhaps it is "the world's most ancient sacred place of this type".