Posted on 02/08/2012 10:36:42 AM PST by blam
'The Oldest (Neanderthal) Work Of Art Ever': 42,000-Year-Old Paintings Of Seals Found In Spanish Cave
* Six paintings were found in the Nerja Caves, 35miles east of Malaga
* They are the only known artistic images created by Neanderthal man
By Tom Worden
Last updated at 9:27 PM on 7th February 2012
Comments (38) Share The world's oldest works of art have been found in a cave on Spain's Costa del Sol, scientists believe. Six paintings of seals are at least 42,000 years old and are the only known artistic images created by Neanderthal man, experts claim.
Professor Jose Luis Sanchidrian, from the University of Cordoba, described the discovery as 'an academic bombshell', as all previous art work has been attributed to Homo sapiens.
Important find: These six paintings of seals were discovered in the Nerja Caves near Malaga, Spain. They are at least 42,000 years old and are the only known artistic images created by Neanderthal man
The paintings were found in the Nerja Caves, 35 miles east of Malaga in the southern region of Andalusia. Spanish scientists sent organic residue found next to the paintings to Miami, where they were dated at being between 43,500 and 42,300 years old.
They hope to establish the exact age by testing parts of the paintings themselves, but their investigation has been hampered by a lack of cash.
Antonio Garrido, in charge of preserving the caves, said the paintings could revolutionise our view of Neanderthal man, who is often portrayed as being monkey-like.
The Nerja Caves, an impressive series of enormous caverns, were discovered
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Tourist attraction: The caves are home to the world's largest stalagmite, standing 105ft tall
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Location: The paintings were found in the Nerja Caves on Spain's south coast
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(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
These 1.85 million year old people discovered in Dmanisi, Georgia had the most advanced tool technology anywhere in the world. It was only thousands of years later that technology this advanced appeared in Africa.
Since I can’t post photos I tried finding the best thread to post this....huge shark whale caught and brought to land....does anybody know what this thing actually is?
Forgive me for this pause in your thread...
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/08/asia/gallery/whale-shark-gallery/index.html?hpt=hp_c3
Ahh.. but he IS a Seal
Mite = MIGHT! as in making a fist to show off the impressive might of your bicep, and then raising your fist to your head height. Your forearm and fist are up, stalagmites point up too.
CaCo3 ceases to be deposited when the water containing dissolved CaCo3 ceases to flow over the surfaces of the dripstones. Hence, these dripstones are much older than 42kyr, and the cave is older than the dripstones.
Yep, your thinking was correct!
Stalactites ( think “T” for top) do drip down from the top as you describe. They will continue to to so as long as the ground water conditions above the cave remain unchanged. I have no information on this detail for this cave but conditions could have changed and dried up millions of years before the painting were done and remained that way. Those stalactites could have been massive “ canvases” for that Neanderthal painter and way older than the paintings themselves.
Do they attack like other sharks? That thing is HUGE!
GrandPappy sure could paint!
I had someone tell me the easiest way to remember was that stalactites "hang tight" to the ceiling. That was 30+ years ago, so it certainly stuck.
“This means that whatever was painted on the outside, supposedly long ago, should be covered up now by more CaCO3 deposited in the interim. No?”
Maybe. Depends when the stalagmites stopped “growing” Eventually, they reach a size where the water can’t flow down them, or comes down unevenly.
Aside from the “art” issue, being this deep in a cave shows NT (or whomever) mastered not only fire, but mobile fire used for lighting a cave. That’s huge.
Watch out for the Seventh Seal!
Do you think Adam and Eve had to “master” carrying a torch?
How can they be sure they are depictions of seals, and not chicken-fried steaks?
Whale sharks are very docile creatures and yes, huge. They survive on plankton through a filter.
I went out to swim with them off the coast of Mexico years ago, unfortunately, they were not out that day. The main thing we were warned of was to not get flogged by their tail.
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LOL!
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The “long period of time” theory crumbles with a trip to the basement of the Lincolin Memorial.
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However, the authenticity of this find came into question when one of the drawings appeared to depict a seal balancing a beach ball on its nose.
LASCAUX
shaman feeds the fire with angelica root and chant
'becomes animal spirit and shadowdances the moon
unnatural noises escape into an otherwise quiet night
the clan is caught in his web of magic song
they enter the trance of his altered state
the morning star showers them with healing
as they stomp evil spirits back into the dark earth
to the east the dawn sun lights the sky with slant
as once again they become mystic animals
painted on the walls of damp caves.
fish hawk
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