Geplaatst: di 30 jul , 2002 9:4726/9 2000
Hier komt weer een persbericht, in het Engels. Later geef ik wel een toelichting, en een plaatje. Het gaat waarschijnlijk over de zgn. 'Acheulische godin'. Het is een beeldje gemaakt door een - als ik het goed heb - homo erectus-cultuur op de grens van Israel en Syrië.
'Lump of Rock' Turns Out to Be World's First Sculpture
By The Independent
September 25, 2000
A STONE dismissed by experts as no more than a lump of rock has been identified as the world's first sculpture and the oldest piece of figurative art ever seen.
New scientific data suggests that early humans were producing representations of life 220,000 years ago, 170,000 years earlier than previously thought. It is a discovery which could revolutionise our understanding of human development.
Italian and American archaeologists used powerful microscopes to prove that a figurine-like piece of volcanic stone from the Golan Heights on Israel's border with Syria is in fact a primitive sculpture, deliberately chiselled and shaped by human hands.
The data from their examination suggests that the prehistoric object was intended to portray a human being, probably a woman. Yet, since its discovery 15 years ago, the rock has been disregarded by most academics.
The researchers; Francesco d'Errico of the French National Centre for Scientific Research, and April Nowall of the University of Victoria in Canada, found that the early human sculptor had used some sort of flint chisel to chip away at a point around 25 per cent down from the top of the lump of rock to produce a neck.
The archaeologists' examination also demonstrated that a stone tool had been used to produce roughly symmetrical grooves on either side of the object to produce arms, and that other areas had been deliberately abraded to make what may have been intended as breasts. The base had also been flattened so that the sculpture could stand upright.
It is the first time that the object, which probably took between 15 and 30 minutes to make, has been subjected to detailed scientific examination. But although the findings confound the majority of academics who had dismissed the object as purely natural, the research vindicates the Israeli archaeologist Professor Nama Goren of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who discovered the stone and who first suggested that it was a primitive sculpture of a woman.
The sculpture, which has been widely ignored since its discovery in 1986, is now likely to be acknowledged by most scholars as the world's oldest work of figurative art.
Hier komt weer een persbericht, in het Engels. Later geef ik wel een toelichting, en een plaatje. Het gaat waarschijnlijk over de zgn. 'Acheulische godin'. Het is een beeldje gemaakt door een - als ik het goed heb - homo erectus-cultuur op de grens van Israel en Syrië.
'Lump of Rock' Turns Out to Be World's First Sculpture
By The Independent
September 25, 2000
A STONE dismissed by experts as no more than a lump of rock has been identified as the world's first sculpture and the oldest piece of figurative art ever seen.
New scientific data suggests that early humans were producing representations of life 220,000 years ago, 170,000 years earlier than previously thought. It is a discovery which could revolutionise our understanding of human development.
Italian and American archaeologists used powerful microscopes to prove that a figurine-like piece of volcanic stone from the Golan Heights on Israel's border with Syria is in fact a primitive sculpture, deliberately chiselled and shaped by human hands.
The data from their examination suggests that the prehistoric object was intended to portray a human being, probably a woman. Yet, since its discovery 15 years ago, the rock has been disregarded by most academics.
The researchers; Francesco d'Errico of the French National Centre for Scientific Research, and April Nowall of the University of Victoria in Canada, found that the early human sculptor had used some sort of flint chisel to chip away at a point around 25 per cent down from the top of the lump of rock to produce a neck.
The archaeologists' examination also demonstrated that a stone tool had been used to produce roughly symmetrical grooves on either side of the object to produce arms, and that other areas had been deliberately abraded to make what may have been intended as breasts. The base had also been flattened so that the sculpture could stand upright.
It is the first time that the object, which probably took between 15 and 30 minutes to make, has been subjected to detailed scientific examination. But although the findings confound the majority of academics who had dismissed the object as purely natural, the research vindicates the Israeli archaeologist Professor Nama Goren of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who discovered the stone and who first suggested that it was a primitive sculpture of a woman.
The sculpture, which has been widely ignored since its discovery in 1986, is now likely to be acknowledged by most scholars as the world's oldest work of figurative art.
14:33 - 27/9 2000
... had ik ook gedaan Els ...
