6000 years old
Man destroyed cave painting for Facebook photo
Police in Spain are investigating damage to a 6,000-year-old cave painting in the south of the country. According to the authorities, a local man had poured water on the painting to make it more visible for a Facebook photo.
The paintings are located in the Sierra Sur de Jaén mountain range in the Spanish province of Jaén. They are among the oldest in the world and have been declared a World Heritage Site by the UN alongside Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China.
According to a report in the Spanish daily newspaper "El País", the police are investigating a 39-year-old man from the neighboring town of Los Villares in connection with the crime. The manhunt began in May when pictures of the water-soaked cave paintings appeared on the internet.
What the man may not have known: Most of the early human remains are located on limestone rocks that contain water-soluble salts. When the water evaporates, the salts precipitate on the surface and cover the color pigments with a whitish crust that covers or destroys them.
"We don't have the means"
Although the Andalusian regional government, which is responsible for preserving the historical sites, has announced aid to restore these paintings, surrounding communities are complaining about the lack of a comprehensive protection and conservation plan that would put an end to the vandalism. Just two years earlier, vandals had spray-painted a Spanish flag over another cave painting nearby.
The mayor of the nearby municipality of Aldeaquemada, Manuel Fernández, called for institutional support for the preservation of the paintings, but at the same time admitted that comprehensive protection of the paintings, which are difficult to access, would be difficult. "We don't have the means to put a guard at every location," he was quoted as saying.
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