Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

What's Wrong With This Article?
IOL ^ | 10-30-2002 | AP

Posted on 10/30/2002 4:15:55 PM PST by blam

Whats wrong with this article/picture?

Ancient art: A 40,000-year-old white silica sandstone cave painting has been discovered in the Banda district, 800km southeast of New Delhi, India. The painting shows cavemen hunting in the Paleolithic age. Photo: AP


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: article; this; whats; with; wrong
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-28 last
To: blam
Cro-Magnon, or modern men, were already in Europe by this date and we know they did some pretty good artwork there at the same period. Presumably the same folks, that is, modern men, could put together a picture or too in India.

This is 38,000 BC they are talking about - relatively recent stuff - not 7 to 12 million years ago when our line separated from that of the other great apes.

21 posted on 10/30/2002 6:07:51 PM PST by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: blam
My first thought is that there is no way humans 40,000 years ago rode horses, and then I wondered if humans even did cave paintings 40,000 years ago.

Not being a student of history or archaeology, my intuition on that came from having seen wall murals that were very primitive in Mexico, as I showed on another of your threads. Those were dated around 1300 B.C., and this pic is not much more primitive than that.

I was an art and art history student, so I have studied a lot of these primitive works over the years and have a good eye for style. Intrigued, I tried my best to find the original AP article on these rock paintings in Banda India and this is what I found.

The most ancient evidence of the production of art predates the generally accepted earliest dates for the appearance of modern humans. Cup marks and a meandering line were etched into a sandstone cave in India two or three hundred thousand years ago.
The Dawn of Prehistoric Rock Art, ©1998 by James Q. Jacobs

Here is a sketch of something similar, but even more primitive, and dating only 300 to 800 B.C.


Villagers Greeting a Hunter
Prehistoric (~ 800 to 300 B.C) painting from Hirebenagal Caves in Karnataka (India)

For a pretty cool quicktime movie showing a rock painting, go to: Main wall of the shelter site of Wananga Pazham. From the Northern section of the Nilgiri Foothills. This is supposedly from the Megalithic Period, approx. 500 B.C.

There is no way the image you posted could be from 40,000 years ago, and I wonder how AP made such a mistake. Maybe it was 400 B.C.

22 posted on 10/30/2002 6:50:16 PM PST by LBGA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: LBGA
Thanks for the link.

I believe they have found 40-60,000 year old paintings in Australia.

23 posted on 10/30/2002 7:00:54 PM PST by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: blam
4,000 years ago would be more like it....but the painting reminded me of Incas or even Aztecs in dress and one of the head dresses. I don't know the first thing about India's history.
24 posted on 10/30/2002 7:01:20 PM PST by ruoflaw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: blam
Still, look at the comparison to the art done sometime between 300 - 800 B.C. The rock art in the AP article is much more advanced than the pic I posted. They have uniforms, heck, they have clothes on! I just can't believe that the AP pic is older than 300 to 400 B.C.

The quote I found from a study did say that they believe humans have expressed themselves in art 2-300,000 years ago, but this AP pic is fairly modern in terms of cave art, I would think.

25 posted on 10/30/2002 7:09:55 PM PST by LBGA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: LBGA
All you wanted to know about horses.

The Legacy Of The Horse

As a side note. Horses are only 25% efficient at converting celluose to energy as cows. More cows survive than horses during periods of drought.

26 posted on 10/30/2002 7:24:45 PM PST by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: blam
Thank you for the link about horses. I bookmarked it to read tomorrow and possibly comment. I have never been known to not have something to say about anything. ;-)

Tonight I am trying to find the pics of the Dems yukking it up at the "Memorial" service to send to my sis, who doesn't read FR. Funniest thing, they seem to have disappeared. Guess it didn't happen.

27 posted on 10/30/2002 8:02:55 PM PST by LBGA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: CruisinAround
Interesting comment !

Tool use and settlements are seen in Italy, in open air and cave sites, dating back 30,000 yrs. (BP)

The "Old Stone Age" is generally stated to have extended from 500,000 BC to 10,000 BC ; however, in the Petralona Cave , found in Greece, the skeleton of a white male was found, together with stone tools, and evidence of regular use of fire. This date is given as 700,000 BC.

Also in Greece, a cave in Thessalisa-dating to 100,000 BC -was found to contain stone tools.

At Epirus Louro-50,000 BC-800 paleolithic stone tools were found, and at Alonissos, stone tools, and the fossilized bones of rhino, hippo, and other large mammals were found.

Stone ART, in the form of drawings incised in limestone, was found at Kokkinopolis, and dated to 33,000 BC.

Personally, in view of the continuing discoveries in anthropology and archaeology,I think I would be pretty "iffy" in drawing any conclusions - on the simple ground we really don't know that much yet !

28 posted on 10/31/2002 7:17:54 AM PST by genefromjersey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-28 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson