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Discovery of ancient cave paintings in Petra stuns art scholars
guardian.co.uk ^ | 22 Aug 2010 | Dalya Alberge

Posted on 08/21/2010 11:41:07 PM PDT by smokingfrog

Spectacular 2,000-year-old Hellenistic-style wall paintings have been revealed at the world heritage site of Petra through the expertise of British conservation specialists. The paintings, in a cave complex, had been obscured by centuries of black soot, smoke and greasy substances, as well as graffiti.

Experts from the Courtauld Institute in London have now removed the black grime, uncovering paintings whose "exceptional" artistic quality and sheer beauty are said to be superior even to some of the better Roman paintings at Herculaneum that were inspired by Hellenistic art.

Virtually no Hellenistic paintings survive today, and fragments only hint at antiquity's lost masterpieces, while revealing little about their colours and composition, so the revelation of these wall paintings in Jordan is all the more significant. They were created by the Nabataeans, who traded extensively with the Greek, Roman and Egyptian empires and whose dominion once stretched from Damascus to the Red Sea, and from Sinai to the Arabian desert.

Such is the naturalistic intricacy of these paintings that the actual species of flowers, birds and insects bursting with life can be identified. They were probably painted in the first century, but may go back further. Professor David Park, an eminent wall paintings expert at the Courtauld, said that the paintings "should make jaws drop".

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


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antiquities; archaeology; archeology; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; history; nabataean; nabataeans; petra; romanempire
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To: zot

Ping.


21 posted on 08/22/2010 7:36:20 PM PDT by Interesting Times (For the truth about "swift boating" see ToSetTheRecordStraight.com)
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To: bigheadfred

Nice! Looks like you hadn’t gotten target lock yet...


22 posted on 08/22/2010 7:40:03 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Democratic Underground... matters are worse, as their latest fund drive has come up short...)
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To: null and void

When I see a UFO I just take another big swig off that bottle...

Whenever I take UFO pictures my wife deletes them later...


23 posted on 08/22/2010 7:41:43 PM PDT by bigheadfred (apoplectic purple)
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To: ransomnote
You know, I never thought of drinking bouts being able to have ‘magnificent style’ before... :)

Guess it all depends on where you went to college.

24 posted on 08/22/2010 7:42:25 PM PDT by MediaMole
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To: SunkenCiv

To say nothing of the 10x zoom feature.


25 posted on 08/22/2010 7:43:12 PM PDT by bigheadfred (apoplectic purple)
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To: bigheadfred

Now I know where all my pics of ETs have gone. I thought they had some mind control thingee where I’d delete them myself.


26 posted on 08/22/2010 9:01:26 PM PDT by wildbill (You're just jealous because the Voices talk only to me.)
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To: Interesting Times

Thanks for the ping. Excellent discovery.

I really like this idea: “The Nabataeans are a sensible people, and are so much inclined to acquire possessions that they publicly fine anyone who has diminished his possessions.”


27 posted on 08/22/2010 10:04:35 PM PDT by zot
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To: bigheadfred

lol I know the feeling.


28 posted on 08/23/2010 3:30:12 AM PDT by visualops (Proud Air Force Mom)
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To: Zakeet

Petra is a world Heritage site and world class tourist attraction. Jordan is fiercely proud of Petra and the Nabetean heritage it represents.

To make the assumption you made is ludicrous.


29 posted on 08/23/2010 4:44:42 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Greetings Jacques. The revolution is coming)
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To: bigheadfred

Funny, last summer when the great whites were eating the seals in Chatham Harbor, my wife was inspired to drive the 100 odd miles out there and see the seals. (Great whites are more elusive.) We get to harbor, find a position on a viewing platform about 15 feet above the water and I’m peering through my 7 x 50 straining at distant objects half a mile out in the harbor, which were in fact seals, and trying to line up a shot (with a camera). When I look down at my feet, there were half a dozen seals swimming right underneath! Doo!


30 posted on 08/23/2010 5:32:48 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (The naked casuistry of the high priests of Warmism would make a Jesuit blush.)
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To: bigheadfred

maybe she’s working for “them”


31 posted on 08/23/2010 5:35:09 AM PDT by stefanbatory (Insert witty tagline here)
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To: stefanbatory

Nah, she just thinks I’m a perv... (Just kidding) :-)))


32 posted on 08/23/2010 5:40:29 AM PDT by bigheadfred (apoplectic purple)
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To: bert
Petra is a world Heritage site and world class tourist attraction. Jordan is fiercely proud of Petra and the Nabetean heritage it represents. ... To make the assumption you made is ludicrous.

You're right.

The Muzzies would never deface a world class tourist attraction that contains religious imagery that might be interpreted by some as idolatrous.

They learned their lesson real good when they destroyed thousands of churches and their associated mosaics, statues, stained glass windows and relics throughout the Middle East. They also learned their lesson when they plastered over the walls of cathedrals such as Santa Sofia. And they learned it when they destroyed Buddhist statutes in Afghanistan and India. And again when they wiped out Hindu temples in India. And again when they looted all of these places of their gold and silver.

Now they have done all that damage to the other treasures, it is safe to assume the adherents of the Religion of Peace would never, ever do another foolish act of violence to another priceless work of art.

And I freely admit it is ludicrous for me to assume otherwise. Don't know what came over me when I made the original comment. Sorry.

33 posted on 08/23/2010 5:50:15 AM PDT by Zakeet (Mark Steyn: We're too broke to be this stupid)
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To: ransomnote
banquets with girl singers and “drinking bouts in magnificent style”

What's not to like?

34 posted on 08/23/2010 11:06:53 AM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: Zakeet
“Any bets as to how long these last before the Muzzies destroy them?”

Interesting that you mentioned that. I was thinking recently about what the long term effects of the Islamification of Europe would result in? (I had just finished watching a video on “Eurabia.” If the destruction of the ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistan is any indication, I would expect that the Islamo-nazis will knock down Stonehenge once they take over Britain. Likewise, the paintings of Christ by Rembrandt will be destroyed in Holland.

35 posted on 08/23/2010 11:08:25 AM PDT by Towed_Jumper (Stephen Hopkins: Founding Father who had Cerebral Palsy.."My hand trembles, my heart does not.")
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To: bigheadfred

:’) Cetacean some pictures, that’s the important thing.


36 posted on 08/23/2010 4:27:34 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Democratic Underground... matters are worse, as their latest fund drive has come up short...)
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