French
archaeologists have discovered an 11,000-year-old wall painting
underground in northern Syria which they believe is the oldest
in the world.
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis.
DAMASCUS (Reuters) -
The 2 square-meter painting, in red, black and white, was found
at the Neolithic settlement of Djade al-Mughara on the Euphrates,
northeast of the city of Aleppo, team leader Eric Coqueugniot
told Reuters.
"It looks like a modernist painting. Some of those who saw
it have likened it to work by (Paul) Klee. Through carbon dating
we established it is from around 9,000 B.C.," Coqueugniot
said.
"We found another painting next to it, but that won't be
excavated until slow work," said Coqueugniot, who works at
France's National Centre for Scientific Research.
Rectangles dominate the ancient painting, which formed part of
an adobe circular wall of a large house with a wooden roof. The
site has been excavated since the early 1990s.
The painting will be moved to Aleppo's museum next year, Coqueugniot
said. Its red came from burnt hematite rock, crushed limestone
formed the white and charcoal provided the black.
The world's oldest painting on a constructed wall was one found
in Turkey but that was dated 1,500 years after the one at Djade
al-Mughara, according to Science magazine.
The inhabitants of Djade al-Mughara lived off hunting and wild
plants. They resembled modern day humans in looks but were not
farmers or domesticated, Coqueugniot said.
"There was a purpose in having the painting in what looked
like a communal house, but we don't know it. The village was later
abandoned and the house stuffed with mud," he said.
A large number of flints and weapons have been found at the site
as well as human skeletons buried under houses.
"This site is one of several Neolithic villages in modern
day Syria and southern Turkey. They seem to have communicated
with each other and had peaceful exchanges," Coqueugniot
said.
Mustafa Ali, a leading Syrian artist, said similar geometric design
to that in the Djade al-Mughara painting found its way into art
throughout the Levant and Persia, and can even be seen in carpets
and kilims (rugs).
"We must not lose sight that the painting is archaeological,
but in a way it's also modern," he said.
France is an important contributor to excavation efforts in Syria,
where 120 teams are at work. Syria was at the crossroads of the
ancient world and has thousands of mostly unexcavated archaeological
sites.
Swiss-German artist Paul Klee had links with the Bauhaus school
and was important in the German modernist movement.