UN vandals spray graffiti on Sahara's prehistoric art

UN vandals spray graffiti on Sahara's prehistoric art

entertainment.timesonline.co.uk

I have previously posted on the topic of the stolen Sumerian tablets and bas-reliefs of ancient Babylon. Another critical element comes into play when discussing the UN. Again they have a hand in erasing human history. This time the crime is peacekeepers, tagging ancient caves with graffiti. Caves dating 15,000 years

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.lascaux.culture.fr
(www.worldheritagesite.org
www.nickbrooks.org
www.stonepages.com

I bring up this article in reference to the next because if you go to the sight, you can get a virtual tour of the cave and see first hand prehistoric splendor, ( www.lascaux.culture.fr...#/fr/00.xml) You need to go to the British flag, located to the left of the page, scroll to the bottom. Then when you grasp the beauty and importance, you will realize our history is being erased before our eyes.

In the 1983, New York Times article by John Darnton, "The Splendid Cave in Altamira Suffers from its Popularity" (www.worldheritagesite.org...). In this article, the author discusses the recent deterioration to cave art that is dated to have been in existence for 15,000 years. In 1879, nine-year-old Maria Sanz de Sautuola discovered the cave artwork when she was exploring the cave with her father. The numerous buffalo and deer painted along the walls of the cave have since brought a large number of visitors. With the large numbers of tourists, we have begun to see the art deteriorating. With the water and carbon dioxide that each person produces, the cave walls began to condensate, causing the temperature of the cave began to rise and drop. With visitors from the outside coming inn, so did the dry air enter the cave, changing the radon levels, and thus causing the rock to form calcium carbonate crystals. Between the crystals and the moisture, the paintings on the wall are beginning to decay. The people of Altamira are stuck between a wall and a hard spot: are they to limit the number of visitors per month, or close down the exhibit completely. By closing down the exhibit, they are closing a part of their history and they are making their economy suffer. By keeping it open to the public, they are ruining in a short number of years, a piece of historic artwork that was undisturbed for over 15,000 years.
These caves show the creativity of the prehistoric world.

Before written language, we told stories in cave paintings. Ancient man used pigments by grinding reds, yellows, and browns, shaded with black. Hollowed out bones found at the sight have traces of pigments inside, showing the artist spit his paint onto the wall. This ingenious invention let to mixing pigments with biological substances, such as blood, grinding plant materials, saliva, and water.

This next article describes how Minurso purposefully defaced cave paintings. Personnel attached to the UN mission damaged “Rock art” in Lajuad with graffiti. The cave is located in Africa and is referred to as Devil's Mountain. I think that the craziest part of this story, aside from the fact that it was done by United Nations peacekeepers, is that the U.N. officials even signed and dated their vandalism and graffiti tags. "Minurso personnel have played a major role in damaging archaeological sites, and such staff are engaged in the systematic defacement of valuable archaeological sites over a large area . . . the recent damage at Lajuad is unprecedented,” Pair that with the UN’s hand in the stolen Sumerian tablets and what we have here is another case of stolen human history.

Why does the UN metal so much in preservation of our history, the history of humans? What are they trying to keep from us? The stories of man are being vandalized and stolen. If you have an elite socioeconomic status, you can own a piece of history. If you are a UN peacekeeper, you can deface human property, and who’s going stop you? Hey, you there that is the history of humanity you are defacing. Why?



entertainment.timesonline.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

A snioppet from your article:

One Croatian peacekeeper scrawled “Petar CroArmy” across a rock face. Extensive traces of pigment from rock painting are visible underneath. Another left behind Cyrillic graffiti, and “Evgeny” from Russia scribbled AUI, the code for the Minurso base at Aguanit. “Mahmoud” from Egypt left his mark at Rekeiz Lemgasem, and “Ibrahim” wrote his name and number over a prehistoric painting of a giraffe. “Issa”, a Kenyan major who signed his name and wrote the date, had just completed a UN course, Ethics in Peacekeeping, documents show.

Julian J. Harston, the UN’s representative of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara and head of Minurso, said that he had been shocked by the scale of the vandalism. After visiting two of the sites, including Devil Mountain, this week, he said: “I was appalled. You’d think some of them would know better. These are officers, not squaddies.” The UN would take action against any officers “kind enough to leave their calling card. We will report it to the troop-contributing countries. We can move them.”

So, basically some ill-disciplined troops from countries such as Russia, Croatia and Egypt decide to daub some graffiti. It isn't UN sanctioned and has been condemned by the head of the UN mission.

You are aware the UN has no forces of it's own? They use troops from countries standing armies. Sometimes, they get poor quality troops as the "better" troops, such as those from the US, are not made available.

It's hardly a conspiracy mate. Just some idiots.

Thank you for providing the link.
I agree it is scandalous but not a conspiracy.

People can be pretty stupid and do foolish things but that is more or less our nature. Some people have no use or respect for antiquity. And you can't teach them anything.

The good news is, foolish cannot be cured, so these same ignoramus's usually step out in traffic or tumble over cliffs and die prematurely. They don't live long lives and are not here long enough to really cause much more harm.

Ancient man scrawls on the walls of caves and on rocks and we call it Prehistoric art

Modern man scrawls on walls and rocks and we call it graffiti and arrest them lol

I did a similar thread once... about graffiti over ancient petroglyphs

This is How Modern Man Treats the Ancients
www.abovetopsecret.com...

But little changes over the millenia..

Templar graffiti in the tomb of Djehutihotep in Egypt



So today the Templar symbols defacing the tomb are just more history

Virtual tour of the tomb
www.arts.kuleuven.be...

really now: what are un peacekeepers useful for?
they rape, destroy and are not able to stop a single war.


reply to post by Socio

www.temehu.com...

God. What a sin. It's horrible. Lasts thousands of years. Modern man? A few decades. A horrible generation of self destructive losers this one has become.

reply to post by Socio

Relax.

In two or three thousand years archaeologists will be going ape over all that 'beautiful' graffiti.

And by the way, the United Nations is not some kind of evil world conspiracy. Where in the world do you live? No... don't tell me... let me guess...

It's a sad state affairs when the only way by which an individual feels they can leave a mark on this earth is to vandalise with ugly tags. Even worse when they deface something as historically important as this. These kinds of people are the lowest common denominator.

IRM

Okay. Who's the controller of sll this?

Who decides some grafitti is better thsn other grsfitti?

Just, saying...............nobody can ssy yes or no, thst these ancient msrkings are NOT some sort of gang tags.

Nor can they say these are some sort of sacred community markings.

No, I don't agree such ancient things should be ruined.

I also don't think that some pioneers who passed by a large rock, 150 yesrs ago, and some of them wrote upon a rock, thst's it's "holy" ground.

It's just some people passng by making a statement, yes?

I am, I guess. just playing the devils advocate, here.

But it would be nice if someone in the future took it upon themselves to protect my art snf grafitti.........Just saying......

What we find on walls in caves, or laid out in stone, just might be ho hum stuff to the people of that period.

Do I want to see these thiings destroyred? Nope. And do I want to see anyone else's statements destroyed? Nope.

So, draw the line. And explain it.

reply to post by InfaRedMan

It's a sad state affairs when the only way by which an individual feels they can leave a mark on this earth is to vandalise with ugly tags. Even worse when they deface something as historically important as this. These kinds of people are the lowest common denominator.

Actually, this kind of people are just people.

Reference Zorgon's post on this thread. There is also Ancient Roman graffiti on the Pyramids. A fifth-century AD monument in my own country has twelfth-century religious poetry scratched into it. Some of the poetry is actually quite good.

Kilroy has always been here. And though I'd like to kick him just as hard as you would, he's just a sad reflection of the fact that human beings in general are a bit rubbish, really.

reply to post by stumason


these people are retarded morons, but calling croatian infantry and special forces "poor" along with russian ones shows your level of knowledge in war!

stick to the ps3 rather

reply to post by stumason


btw. "better" us troops only gangrape, drink and drive and dont care when they kill, piss on 1500 years old palace etc...

really better troops.

once again, stick to the ps3

reply to post by Dinamo

I have nothing against Croatians, but surely the point here is that it was a Croatian who performed that particular act of vandalism--and was stupid enough to be proud of it. Somehow I don't think you're on very firm ground here.

Now, please stay on topic or I'll alert a moderator, who will most certainly delete your posts.

That's just heartbreaking.

Rock Art is one of my avocational studies, and modern types of paint just deface things more thoroughly than previous paints can. When I visit a site, I inform the agencies if I see signs of tampering.

I don't understand the drive to write one's name all over the place. There are better ways of leaving your name around.

Originally posted by Astyanax
reply to post by InfaRedMan

 

Kilroy has always been here. And though I'd like to kick him just as hard as you would, he's just a sad reflection of the fact that human beings in general are a bit rubbish, really.

I agree but all that really says is that the morons have always been around. In no way do these people represent all of humanity though.

IRM

This is only my second post on ATS so please excuse my newbie status. This is not just one individual Croatian peacekeeper defacing history but many assigned to the UN mission. I agree that there are just plain stupid people out there who take satisfaction in destroying property. These are officers not civilians, Minurso staff felt they had the authority to obliterate elements of culture in the Sahara. In addition, they have violated the UN ethics in peacekeeping. These personnel have played a role in systematically destroying valuable archeological sites. How can you say this is not a conspiracy?
Now I have stated previously that I am a newbie to this site, but feel passionately that this is in fact a systematic conspiracy. I do not know what they are trying to hide and why they are damaging history. I will keep this post updated.

If one feels the need to leave their art on a rock, stone, building, etc. that's fine - just don't destroy someone else's canvas while doing so. Very disrespectful, rude and uncalled for.

reply to post by Astyanax


please alert the mods if you want.

and read my posts carefully next time. i called him (petarcroarmy) retarded moron because he is one.

but call our and russian troops not good enough is plain stupid.

btw. i commented stumason post considering quality of UN troops not your article.

this is old news, of course i was stunned by stupidity of petarcroarmy imbecile.

edit because i'm senile in my 30s

[edit on 27-8-2010 by Dinamo]

[edit on 27-8-2010 by Dinamo]

reply to post by Socio


i must disappoint you - there is no conspiracy - only stupidity

we had UN troops from all over the world - i have served in army with them - there are fools everywhere
and in US troop, in Egypt, Croatia....
idiot is an idiot - simple as that

how would you call a US soldier who did same thing on church from 295 AD?
simple - idiot.
no conspiracy - plain human stupidity

btw. army has done all the sanctions against petarcroarmy
i haven't seen the same from USA when their soldier did the same in Croatia