[MR] OP: Debate Over Moldy Cave Art Is a Tale of Human Missteps - washingtonpost.com

[Davitt il Bigollo da Pisa]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/30/AR2008063002363.html

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Debate Over Moldy Cave Art Is a Tale of Human Missteps

<<picture in the original>>


Markings show the spots where fungus, cracks and 
other problems threaten one of the Lascaux cave 
paintings, which are estimated to be 17,000 years 
old. (Courtesy Of Drac Aquitaine -- French 
Ministry Of Culture And Communication)

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2008/06/30/PH2008063002473.jpg

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By <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/molly+moore/>Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, July 1, 2008; Page A01


MONTIGNAC, 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/france.html?nav=el>France 
-- The regal black bull painted by a Stone Age 
artist on a cave wall in southwestern France 
17,000 years ago has survived millennia of war 
and pestilence just a few yards above its subterranean gallery.

Today the prehistoric bovine could face 
annihilation by an army of encroaching black mold 
spots, the latest in a series of threats 
unwittingly brought in over the years by tourists, scientists and bureaucrats.

"Each time we try to resolve one problem, we 
create another," said Marie-Anne Sire, the cave 
administrator who coordinates the scientific 
teams trying to save the endangered reindeer, 
potbellied ponies and woolly rhinos of the 
Lascaux cave, which contains one of the world's 
most famous collections of prehistoric art.

The extraordinary creatures -- hundreds of 
exquisite beasts etched and painted across the 
undulating walls and ceilings of large 
underground cavities -- have become part of an 
international struggle to rescue prehistoric 
artifacts from the missteps of modern man.

Lascaux is the focus of a growing, 
Internet-driven global debate: Should heritage 
sites become laboratories reserved, in the 
interests of preservation, for study exclusively 
by scientists? Or are they such an important part 
of the patrimony of humanity that they should be 
open to the public, despite the inherent risks of damage?
<<snip>>



--

Davitt il Bigollo da Piƒa
Goldƒmith's Agent in Livorno
Fa¢or in the lands of the Mughuls
Coral and Emeralds from Inde and Serendip

Checky argent and azure, two cheƒs rooks or in 
chief, a cheƒs knight or, a three-turret tower or in baƒe