Forget Europe, the world’s oldest oil painting was just recently found in the caves of the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan. The Bamiyan Valley was originally famous for its 1,500 year old Buddha statues that were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, but a team of scientists from the US, Japan and Europe declared this week that they some of the cave oil paintings date back to 650 A.D.
The oil paintings have not fared well. Years of the severe Afghan natural environment as well as dynamite explosions from the Taliban have damaged the paintings. In attempting to preserve the intact portions, a team of researchers from the National Research for Cultural in Tokyo — they were working under a Japanese/UNESCO Fun-in-Trust program — discovered oily residues in a group of one of the wall paintings. Further research with different microscopic, x-ray and chemical tests showed that the paintings may have been made using poppy seed and walnut oils.
The paintings are most likely the work of artists who once traveled the Silk Road, East and Central Asia’s historic trade route, but the most important aspect about the discovery is that it reverses the standard assumption that oil painting originated in Europe. To learn more about the discovery go here.