24.12.2022, 10:24
Zitat:Vandals destroy 22,000-year-old sacred cave art in Australia, horrifying indigenous communityhttps://edition.cnn.com/style/article/au...index.html
In a flat, arid stretch of southern Australia, the Koonalda Cave is home to art that dates back 22,000 years -- a sacred site for the indigenous Mirning People and a discovery that transformed scientists' understanding of history. That protected cave and its art have now been vandalized with graffiti, devastating the indigenous Mirning community as authorities search for the culprits.
"Earlier this year it was discovered that the cave had been unlawfully accessed and a section of the delicate finger flutings had been vandalized, with damage scratched across them into the side of the cave," a government spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. The flutings are grooves drawn by the fingers of ice age humans across the soft limestone cave walls. [...]
The vandals were not deterred by fences at the caves, so the South Australia state government is now considering installing security cameras and has been consulting indigenous leaders "over recent months" on how to better protect the site, the spokesperson added. [...] The incident has frustrated the Mirning People, who say their previous repeated requests for higher security went unheeded. As a sacred site, it is closed to the public and only accessible to a few male elders in the community, the group said in a statement. Apart from the cave's spiritual significance, the restrictions are also to protect the delicate art, some of which is etched into the cave floor.
Schneemann