Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Not Petroleum

Okay -- this is really cheating -- but I think it's fascinating and am in dire need of a better story and a little more sleep.

This is a non-bi-lined story in the British Mirror. I don't know anything about the media outlet at all. Though it sounds vaguely familiar it could be Mad Magazine for all I know...

The world's oldest oil paintings have been discovered in caves blown up by Taliban fanatics.

Scientists found the 1,350-year-old images behind the site of two Buddha statues destroyed at Bamiyan, in northern Afghanistan, in 2001.

They show robed Buddhas and may have been painted with walnut and poppy seed drying oils in the 7th century.

Researcher Yoko Taniguchi said: "This is the earliest clear example of such paintings."

Oil painting was thought to date from the 15th century.

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