ur ancient ancestors have left behind some incredible yet mysterious pieces of artwork that make us wonder what was actually behind the artists’ mind or what was his inspiration. It is very normal to not know the creator of the pyramids, the author of some ancient hieroglyphs, or even the drawings found within a cave about 40,000 years ago.
What isn’t normal is not finding the artists behind a 2.5 miles (4.2 kilometers) tall piece of artwork that was done in 1998.
If it weren’t for a pilot from NASA to fly over the Southern Australian region we would have most probably never noticed the existence of this art piece so soon. Pilot Trevor Wright discovered Marree Man on the 26th of June 1998 and he claims that he spotted it by chance. Based on the records of NASA at the time, the piece was not there in 1997, knowing that someone surely had created it in 1998 and this is certainly something that isn’t created in a short period of time due to its size.
The biggest geoglyph in history
Marree Man is situated in Finnis Springs, near a military base and it has an outline that measures 17 miles (28 kilometers) and the initial depth of the markings within the groud is 14 inches (35cm). Even if GPS technology was still new in 1998 and therefore not very reliable, the artist or artists have managed to create this gigantic piece of art without being seen by anyone. What is more interesting is that the military base is not very far and you would think that they would see the activity.
Based on the size of the piece alone, it would have taken at least 3 months to complete, but as we do not know what tools have been used or how many artists have been involved, it is difficult to say the actual time it would have taken to create this. The man within the drawing if you can call it that seems to be holding a wand or maybe a sword in his left hand whilst the left hand seems to have not been finished or maybe it was disturbed by nature. Although experts say that it actually represents an Indigenous Australian man hunting with a boomerang or stick.
Phil Turner, a journalist who went to investigate the site observed that the artist or artists used spike at every 10 meters to create the outlines. Another thing that was found at the site was a plaque showing the US flag which made people think that this may have been the work of some Americans. The local military force however thought that the clues left at the site have the intent to mislead everyone, assuring that the identity of the artists would remain anonymous.
The Mystery is part of the Attraction
As soon as the world found out about the existence of this geoglyph, a lot of big companies started fighting for the right to make it a tourist attraction. The land on which the geoglyph is sited belongs to the Arabana people (ancestors of Australia). Its appearance initially made the Aboriginal community upset as some people viewed it as an attempt to desecrate their rightful land.
The most interesting part is that on the plaque that was discovered at the site there was a quote written on it:
“In honour of the land they once knew. His attainments in these pursuits are extraordinary; a constant source of wonderment and admiration.”
After some research had been done, it turns out the quote comes from a book published in 1945 by Hedley H. Finlayson’s entitled “The Red Centre”. The book itself does talk about the ancestors that have once lived in Australia before any colonies came over and their lifestyle. There is a lot of information on hunting and many see that certain aspects of hunters described in the book have a resemblance with Marree Man, showing that actually there is a lot of thought behind this work of art.
Maybe, the way to solve the mystery can be found within the book in the case that this is just a big treasure hunt with the goal of finding the identity of those people. I mean why wouldn’t they want to show their identity, they would get popular overnight and I say “they” because I cannot see a single person pull this off in such a short period of time.
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