12,000-year-old rock paintings stolen in Iran

TEHRAN,Nov.30(MNA) -- Part of a collection prehistoric rock paintings have been stolen from the Mir Malas Cave in southwestern Iran. The cave is located in Sarsarkhin Mount near the town of Khuhdasht, Lorestan Province. The paintings dating back to about 12,000 year ago have been cut from the walls on the northern and southern sides of the cave. The paintings depicting scenes of humans and animals on a hunting ground had been created with red and black colors. Figures of horsemen hunting animals were created on the walls. In addition, figures of deers, dogs, cows and foxes were painted on the rocks. Incisions of 25 to 30 centimeters in depth have been made to remove them from the walls. Due to this fact, the robber or robbers were informed about the importance of the unique paintings. However, the rest of the paintings have been seriously been damaged. “Unfortunately, the theft has caused extensive damages to the paintings,” Dariush Ebrahimi, a cultural heritage enthusiast who has recently visited the site said. “The dirt road leading to the cave hinders easy access to it for the cultural heritage enthusiasts who would like to pay regular visits to the site,” he added. French archaeologist Roman Ghirshman, who had conducted many studies on Iranian archaeological sites, did not find any example of a prehistoric painting in his research. “During all my explorations on cave relics in your country in the Bakhtiari mountain range as well as those which were conducted by professor Carleton S. Coon in the Bisotun, Alborz and Khorasan mountain ranges or the excavations conducted by American scientists in Afghanistan, no cave paintings on mountain rocks were discovered,” Ghirshman said in 1989. However, Ghirshman’s remarks place too much importance on the rock paintings.