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World's oldest portrait in peril [Australia]
Sunday Times ^ | December 14, 2008 | Paul Ham, Sydney

Posted on 12/17/2008 7:31:37 PM PST by SunkenCiv

The world's oldest depiction of a human face could be threatened if Australian mining companies are permitted to build an explosives factory on the remote Burrup peninsula in the northwest of the country.

A bulbous image of indiscernible sex, with huge eyes and sunken cheeks, the 10,000 year-old carving is chipped out of hard rock. Thousands of other carvings, mostly of plants and animals, which date back to beyond the last Ice Age, are scattered about the peninsula.

Archeologists believe that aboriginal tribes made the distinctive carvings up to 30,000 years ago. They could be nearly twice as old as the Lascaux cave paintings in the Dordogne, France.

Last year the mining company Woodside Energy won permission to move 170 pieces of rock art to a new site to make way for a liquefied natural gas plant. Next year Burrup Nitrates is planning to build an explosives plant on the site.

Opposition to the development is led by Robin Chapple, a British-born Green MP...

The value of the carvings lies in their unbroken depiction of ancient tribes' adaptation to thousands of years of climate change...

The site is sacred to the local Yaburara aborigines, whose ancestors' carvings tell how the tribes changed their hunting and gathering methods to survive. Some carvings from 25,000 years ago show they hunted mammals and flat-tailed wallabies; in more recent times, as the ice melted, they turned their attention to turtles and the Tasmanian tiger.

(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: australia; godsgravesglyphs
subtitled An explosives factory in Australia threatens a rock carving of a human face dating back to beyond the last Ice Age.
1 posted on 12/17/2008 7:31:37 PM PST by SunkenCiv
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To: Fred Nerks; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·

 
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To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

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2 posted on 12/17/2008 7:32:02 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile finally updated Saturday, December 6, 2008 !!!)
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To: SunkenCiv

A bulbous image of indiscernible sex, with huge eyes and sunken cheeks....

Where is that Helen Thomas pic....


3 posted on 12/17/2008 7:33:38 PM PST by icwhatudo
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To: icwhatudo

No...please...have mercy on our retinas.


4 posted on 12/17/2008 7:36:17 PM PST by Salamander (Cursed with Second Sight.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I tend to be hard core capitalist, but no way in hell should any company be allowed to destroy anything this old and significant. Apparently it all can’t be moved...


5 posted on 12/17/2008 7:36:53 PM PST by ScreamingFist (Annihilation - The result of underestimating your enemies. NRA)
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To: icwhatudo
Great, you've really done it this time...
Image and video hosting by TinyPic

6 posted on 12/17/2008 7:39:51 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile finally updated Saturday, December 6, 2008 !!!)
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To: SunkenCiv

GOOGLE

7 posted on 12/17/2008 7:41:23 PM PST by Fred Nerks (FAIR DINKUM!)
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To: SunkenCiv

I ain't never had me an aboriginal...


8 posted on 12/17/2008 7:44:09 PM PST by billorites
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To: Fred Nerks

Looks like an owl to me ;)


9 posted on 12/17/2008 7:48:09 PM PST by Marmolade
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To: icwhatudo

I always know where a thread like this will lead!


10 posted on 12/17/2008 7:56:57 PM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (THE SECOND AMENDMENT, A MATTER OF FACT, NOT A MATTER OF OPINION)
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To: SunkenCiv

11 posted on 12/17/2008 8:00:09 PM PST by Former Fetus
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To: ScreamingFist

It’s an explosives company. Chances are the whole factory will eventually blow sky-high. That’ll l’arn ‘em.

I don’t think this is much of a problem. Some of these will be moved, the rest don’t need to be to make way for the plant.


12 posted on 12/17/2008 8:24:13 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile finally updated Saturday, December 6, 2008 !!!)
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To: Marmolade

looks like an owl to me too.


13 posted on 12/17/2008 8:24:18 PM PST by Kirkwood
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To: Kirkwood

Looks like a fat guy smoking a “peace” pipe to me......


14 posted on 12/17/2008 8:28:21 PM PST by ScreamingFist (Annihilation - The result of underestimating your enemies. NRA)
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To: Kirkwood; Marmolade; ScreamingFist

No ...not an owl. It looks like that old WW2 drawing (something like ‘kirby was here’or something like that, that used to be drawn everywhere, showing some bald guy with a big nose peeking over stuff).


15 posted on 12/17/2008 8:51:33 PM PST by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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To: spetznaz

Kilroy was here....


16 posted on 12/17/2008 8:57:03 PM PST by ScreamingFist (Annihilation - The result of underestimating your enemies. NRA)
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To: Fred Nerks

Helen, is that you?


17 posted on 12/17/2008 8:58:43 PM PST by Rocky
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To: Rocky

Actually, that depiction was a forerunner of Helen Thomas.

She is part of the only known species that DEVOLVED.


18 posted on 12/18/2008 5:18:53 AM PST by wildbill
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To: spetznaz

“Kilroy Was Here” is the american version, text, no picture.
The little guy with the nose hanging over a fence was called “Chad”, and was british in origin.
Although they had separate origins, they were often found together throughout WW2 europe, asia, and the middle east, especially in areas where americans, aussies and brits were allied.


19 posted on 12/20/2008 10:25:42 PM PST by Drammach (Freedom - It's not just a job, It's an Adventure)
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To: Drammach

Thank you sir.


20 posted on 12/21/2008 9:29:37 AM PST by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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