This is exceptionally sad. I've seen some of the cave art in other parts of Australia and it's mind-boggling that someone could be so horrible as to destroy it for their own entertainment.
Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia
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Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia
#12I have a friend on a property with cave art here in the hunter valley of Australia. We really don't do enough to preserve it at all. He's responsible and ensures no harm but it's still weird to own private land with 10k+ year old art and have no one really give a damn about it.
Compare it to European attitudes, eg. Lascaux where they closed off the cave completely and only allow tourists near the modern reconstruction.
We really do take 10k+ year old history for granted here.
Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia
#13It's a shame that this happened, but it's not unsurprising. If you put a probability of loss on every relic of antiquity, they multiply out to a substantial amount of destruction every year. Ultimately it's a matter of cost. The cost to secure all of these pieces is extremely high. We won't be able to safeguard everything, but there are probably low hanging fruit in applying basic security measures to the items most…
Another comment suggests that the Mirning people wanted to volunteer to protect it, but the local government was restricting their access. So while cost may play a part, there was also an issue of lack of concern from the government.
Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia
#14I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion but I don't really think this is THAT big of a deal. Yea, I know the art is old and all that and it really is unfortunate but its also the nature for all things to change. Maybe in another 30k years, we'll be looking at the defacement as an amazing piece of art that tells the story of the current social climate at this point in time, or something along those lines.
Artwork such as this is not just important from an artistic perspective, it's important from an archeological, historical, and paleontological perspective. There is a lot we have learned from ancient rock art and probably a lot that we have yet to learn. For example, by exampining the kinds of animals in ancient cave paintings paleontologists have been able to learn certain details about the appearance and behavior of now extinct megafauna.
Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia
#15Is "don't look now, but this is a death cave" a cultural dog whistle of some kind or just a random childish phrase?
Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia
#16Is "don't look now, but this is a death cave" a cultural dog whistle of some kind or just a random childish phrase?
Beyond dog whistle, what does it even mean in this context?
Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia
#17I have a friend on a property with cave art here in the hunter valley of Australia. We really don't do enough to preserve it at all. He's responsible and ensures no harm but it's still weird to own private land with 10k+ year old art and have no one really give a damn about it. Compare it to European attitudes, eg. Lascaux where they closed off the cave completely and only allow tourists near the modern reconstructio…
I presume the first thing to do is to record a high res 3d scan and photos of the cave, as vandals aren't the only threat (natural elements).
Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia
#18I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion but I don't really think this is THAT big of a deal. Yea, I know the art is old and all that and it really is unfortunate but its also the nature for all things to change. Maybe in another 30k years, we'll be looking at the defacement as an amazing piece of art that tells the story of the current social climate at this point in time, or something along those lines.
Maybe in 2,000 years: https://scienceinpoland.pap.pl/en/news/news,414643,in-a-phar...
I am with you. Obviously, it would be better if it had not happened from our perspective, but I am not going to lose any sleep over it. Visitors to the caves 30,000 years ago defaced the natural beauty. It is reveled and studied today. The parents or elders might have castigated them for vandalizing sacred grounds or admonished them for wasting time with such worthless endeavors. Today, we do the same.
Banksy largely gets a pass and is celebrated. In 1,000 years or 50, someone might be selling this new imagery on a t-shirt.
I found a fossil upper palate and strange humanoid teeth in Ohio during my teens. Sadly, it is lost forever. Considering it might be a rarity here and possibly significant to science, I wish it had never disappeared. I occasionally lose sleep over that. It meant something to me. That cave art means something to others. I can empathize in that context.
Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia
#19Is "don't look now, but this is a death cave" a cultural dog whistle of some kind or just a random childish phrase?
Just garden variety idiocy.
Re: Vandals destroy 30k-year-old indigenous cave drawings in Australia
#20My suspicion is that whoever did this was emboldened when none of the climate change vandals who did similar things to paintings in museums got any real punishment. If they all got a year or two in prison instead, I don't think this would have happened.