Earliest Oil Paintings

Art professors will need to revise their lectures on oil paints, in the light of new findings. Researchers from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble have been investigating ancient caves behind the ruined Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, those colossal 6th-century statues which were destroyed by ignorant Muslim fanatics - the so-called Taliban - in 2001, because Buddhas are un-Islamic! Having analysed 7th-century murals painted in the caves by Buddhist monks, the researchers discovered that they were created using oil paints. This is the earliest known use, centuries before oil paints were used in Europe.