This is beautiful, isn't it? It could be a modernist paining - something by Klee, perhaps? No, it's actually the oldest wall-painting in the world - 11,000 years old.
It was uncovered at the Neolithic settlement of Djade al-Mughara on the Euphrates, northeast of the city of Aleppo in northern Syria, and forms part of an adobe circular wall of a large house with a wooden roof. The red came from burnt hematite rock, the white from crushed limestone and the black from charcoal. Surely it can be no coincidence that similar geometric designs can been seen even in Turkish and Levantine kilims today?
The Neolithic inhabitants of Djade al-Mughara were hunter-gathers, and the several villages that have been found in this region seem to have co-existed peacefully. The structure in which the painting was found seems to have been a communal house, which was stuffed with mud when the village was abandoned at a later date. A large number of flints and weapons have been found at the site as well as human skeletons buried under houses.
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