11,000 year old painting looks modern

by Dawoud (Bahrain/Japan)

I’ve always been a history buff, as well as interested in archeology. As time goes by and I become more aware of the things around me, I also notice that as a species, we’ve done a pretty poor job of documenting and preserving parts of our past. I find that anything that links us to the world that existed thousands of years ago deserves study, preservation and documentation because the old saying goes, “How do you know where you are going if you don’t know where you are from?” Right along with “Those who do not bother to learn the lessons of the past (mistakes) are doomed to repeat it.”

I saw this on Yahoo! News today. It is the story of an 11,000 year old painting from the Neolithic period of humans. The Neolithic period consisted of hunters and gatherers, moving along with the herds of mammoths, bison and other animals as their source of protein and sustenance as well as supplementing it with what was found growing wild. They did establish some form of communal dwelling, but not much is known about it.

The person/persons who left this artwork had to have been inspired by something they saw or experienced or maybe they were just extremely bored one night. That’s usually how it goes, but what it was, we will never know. Findings such as this painting, ancient ruins (like the ancient temple across the street from my house called Barbar Temple and the thousands of ancient burial mounds that litter the northern end of the country) and others found throughout the world deserve to be left unmolested and preserved as a gift to the current and future generations. Such a shame that an extremist group did what they did to the statues in Bamiyan.

Those pieces of human art carved out of limestone thousands of years ago can never be replaced. Take an interest in the art around you, appreciate it for what it is, and more importantly, help preserve it. Art does not have to be inanimate, for it can also be an artform, such as basket weaving, pottery making, carpet-weaving and a thousand other things. If not for you, then for the next generations to come.