Any bets as to how long these last before the Muzzies destroy them?
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 ...
FYI
Any bets as to how long these last before the Muzzies destroy them?
Hope they photograph the heck out of them so we can enjoy them long after they have been destroyed. The artists were described in the following paragraph and the part about ‘freedom’ caught my eye - it warmed my heart and reminded me of another reason why they will be destroyed:
Few Nabataean manuscripts survive, but it is through the ancient historians Strabo, Josephus and Diodorus that we know something about them and their culture. Diodorus wrote of a people with diverse characteristics who were “exceptionally fond of freedom”. Strabo described them as “exceedingly well-governed”, with few slaves, banquets with girl singers and “drinking bouts in magnificent style” held by the king, in which “no one drinks more than 11 cupfuls, each time using a different golden cup”.
They first appeared to history in 312BC in a cuneiform inscription, recording their defeat of a Syrian army.
The fight for FREEDOM has gone one throughout our entire recorded history. And the fight continues to this day.
Article says that’s a painting of a winged child with flute. I see hooves too. Thinking no to child.
I’ve been to Petra although it was quite some time ago - mid 80’s. You have lunch at a small restaurant and then go by horseback through a very narrow canyon to the site. It is quite spectacular. At that time there was no “controlling legal authority” in place and if that is the current situation it is not clear how these painting can be preserved. A permanent guard would be necessary. Not likely to happen IMHO.
Geez you’d think they could put up more photos.
I was there in 1996. Things had already changed at least to the outside areas. A hotel complex was being developed and I imagine now almost 15 years since then development of the area is even more pronounced.
Kind of like the Las Vegas of the first century.
Good point. You know, I never thought of drinking bouts being able to have ‘magnificent style’ before... :)
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Geez you’d think they could put up more photos.
Same thing happened to me on the Oregon Coast last year. I walked out onto a point and asked a woman who was standing there if there were any whales about. She said, "There's one right down there." I was so stuned there was was so close I completely forgot the camera hanging around my neck.
Next time carry a beeber to wake you back up.
Good thing there weren’t any beebers around. ;’)
Post 18.
Yeah. Just like all my UFO pictures.
I hate that.
j/k...
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