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Man Destroyed a 6,000-Year-Old Cave Painting for a Facebook Photo
Gizmodo ^ | August 8, 2024 | Matthew Gault

Posted on 08/08/2024 1:02:35 PM PDT by Red Badger

This vibrant reminder of the human need to create art was no match for one idiot with a smart phone and a dream.

The paintings, washed out by water. © Civil Guard photo.

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Cops are investigating the defacement of a 6,000-year-old cave painting in southern Spain. According to authorities, the ancient evidence of the human drive to create was damaged when a local man poured water on it. Why? He was trying to gussy up the painting to take a photo for his Facebook page.

The paintings are located in the Sierra Sur de Jaén mountain in Spain’s Jaén Province. They’re some of the oldest in the world and the UN has recognized their location as a World Heritage Site alongside Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China.

According to a report in the Spanish newspaper El País, the police are investigating a 39-year-old man from the neighboring city of Los Villares in connection with the crime. They kicked off the hunt in May when pictures of the water-logged cave paintings surfaced online.

People love to take pictures of the paintings, which is a normal instinct. What’s not normal is pouring water over them to make sure they glisten and gleam when photographed. After taking the pictures, the man uploaded them to Facebook and tagged his location. It wasn’t hard for authorities to track him down.

Dumbasses trying to score points on social media are just the latest threat to the ancient cave paintings. In 2022, vandals spray-painted a large Spanish flag over another nearby cave painting. The flag was so large it could be spotted from a nearby road. Something similar happened in Australia (also in 2022) when vandals defaced 3,000-year-old rock art.

Vandals are bad, but the inevitable march of time and climate change are the two biggest threats to this invaluable art. As the planet heats up and the oceans rise, we’re losing access to some of these artistic wonders. It may soon be hard to look at them at all, let alone protect them from idiots who want to capture them forever on social media.

In southern France, there’s a cave filled with paintings of prehistoric marine life, penguins, seals, fish, carts, and bears. Reaching it requires diving into the Mediterranean and navigating an underwater cave. Sea levels have risen a lot in the past decade and navigating to the cave is becoming increasingly difficult. Worse, the changing tides are starting to wipe away some of the artwork.

Whether by clout-chasing social media addicts or man-made climate change, humans are the force by which all our artistic endeavors will be destroyed.


TOPICS: History; Society; Travel; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: caveart; facebookidiot; godsgravesglyphs; spain
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To: 21twelve

Didn’t the nitwit ever hear of Adobe or such? What a subhuman loser. To top it off I bet he is a guy for kamala.


21 posted on 08/08/2024 1:47:30 PM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp??)
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To: Moltke

The vandals, while irritating, are no worse than the journalists who try to misinform people with such absolute nonsense about the climate’s effects.


22 posted on 08/08/2024 1:56:12 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Red Badger

I stopped reading when they started to spout off about “climate change”.🙄


23 posted on 08/08/2024 1:59:06 PM PDT by BiteYourSelf ( Earth first, we'll strip mine the other planets later.)
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To: Red Badger

Monkey Jesus memes

24 posted on 08/08/2024 2:07:31 PM PDT by Nateman (Democrats did not strive for fraud friendly voting merely to continue honest elections.)
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To: Red Badger

>Deep inside a cave. A good portion of Spain’s interior is like a desert. A lot of the Spaghetti Westerns were filmed there<

Been watching Spaghetti Westerns on Grit and Cinevault lately.
Loved them at first. Then reruns came birds singing in the desert and at night. Soooo many birds. Drives me nuts!

Also knew by the sound of the music that somebody was about to get it on
and I don’t mean a gun fight. No surprises there!


25 posted on 08/08/2024 2:11:18 PM PDT by TribalPrincess2U (Bye done!)
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To: 21twelve

I have seen videos like that. Amazing. They do that without drones in places like caves and pyramids.


26 posted on 08/08/2024 2:15:06 PM PDT by TexasGator
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To: Red Badger

Hanging is too good for him.


27 posted on 08/08/2024 2:17:40 PM PDT by Dave911
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To: Red Badger
Inevitable march of time and climate change are the two biggest threats to this invaluable art.

If you are a reporter, there is a requirement that you include this verbiage in every article no mater how irreverent or off topic.

Fail to follow the directive and the senior editor will just include it for you.

28 posted on 08/08/2024 2:32:43 PM PDT by usurper (AI was born with a birth defect.)
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To: Red Badger

I having a hard time believing this story. There is simply no way a thousands year old painting would get damaged by a little water.

Caves by nature get damp and any paint that was that fragile would have long since washed away.


29 posted on 08/08/2024 2:42:41 PM PDT by packrat35 (Pureblood! No clot shot for me!)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...
Vandals are bad, but the inevitable march of time and climate change...
Media a-holes are worse.
Thanks Red Badger.

30 posted on 08/08/2024 2:51:03 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: All

Well… that guy thousands of years ago vandalized the cave.


31 posted on 08/08/2024 2:56:56 PM PDT by mmichaels1970
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To: Red Badger

And in 1000 years krylon spray paint graffiti will be considered art.

Though... I love archeology. I loved visiting tiny Greek islands and there were caves where some unknown sailor carved his name on the wall 2000 years ago.

“Kilroyopolis was here.”

We all want to leave our mark on eternity.


32 posted on 08/08/2024 3:20:08 PM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: Red Badger
In southern France, there’s a cave filled with paintings of prehistoric marine life, penguins, seals, fish, carts, and bears. Reaching it requires diving into the Mediterranean and navigating an underwater cave. Sea levels have risen a lot in the past decade and navigating to the cave is becoming increasingly difficult. Worse, the changing tides are starting to wipe away some of the artwork.

Utterly deceptive BS. The Ice age glaciers melted submerging most coastal settlements all over the world.. Now, how did SUVs cause the ice age to end 12,000 years ago? Can't? Then explain what did cause it. Can't? well alrighty then.

33 posted on 08/08/2024 6:46:20 PM PDT by pepsi_junkie ("We want no Gestapo or Secret Police. F. B. I. is tending in that direction." - Harry S Truman)
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To: Moltke

Lo siento senor. Climate Change made me do it!


34 posted on 08/09/2024 12:12:01 AM PDT by Theophilus (covfefe)
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To: Red Badger
Woman Who Ruined Fresco Of Jesus Now Wants To Be Paid


35 posted on 08/09/2024 3:49:11 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (The country bounces along like Custer on the way to Little Big Horn, thanks to Dear Leader)
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To: COBOL2Java

She should be horse whipped..................


36 posted on 08/09/2024 5:17:07 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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