Comments on: A Rock and a Hard Place

By: kierra Pettit

kierra Pettit — Sat, 16 May 2009 04:54:42 +0000

this seems to be a question that experts have to deal with all the time in a variety of fields because in their attempts to treat the caves they also risk damaging the paintings and habitat even more

By: Priscilla Quach

Priscilla Quach — Sat, 16 May 2009 02:49:45 +0000

I find it amusing that by trying to make everything better we’ve made everything worse. That seems to be a reoccurring theme in our history. We invade, we destroy, and we make everything worse trying to right our wrongs.

By: Colin Ferguson

Colin Ferguson — Sat, 16 May 2009 02:24:35 +0000

Humans are on the Earth just like any other animal and should be free to explore all. The preservation of the ecosystem and the environment are much more important than the history and culture because history is in the past, but the ecosystem is a constantly changing thing that needs to maintained in the present making it vastly more important. Often to have one thing, another must be given up. Even with the great strides in science, it is probably unlikely that both can be had.

By: Christiana Kittelson

Christiana Kittelson — Sat, 16 May 2009 01:15:30 +0000

Who said that the future generations cannot appreciate it? This delicate balance of ecosystems should be respected so the generations can appreciate it. It would be a shame that from a hundred years from now that it fades away and all due to the immediate gratification of tourism.

By: Hannah James

Hannah James — Sat, 16 May 2009 00:08:28 +0000

Leslie pointed out what I had in mind to say…that it is not only a mere glimpse of the creatures of the time or the depicted climate, but yes…archaeologists and scientists actually are working with not only radio carbon dating, but also thermoluminescent dating in order to decode the past. The evidence in these caves yields a broad spectrum of possible future revelations such as the materials used to paint…were they indigenous to the region? if not how did they get there? … which can lead to questions arising concerning this region of peoples relationship to other tribal peoples? did they trade ? Also the form of the drawings. Owing to the Letter B script tablets found at, I believe, it was the palace at Knossos near Greece that later evolved into the Greek language as we know it; and the discovery of the Phoenician Alphabet forms, we are coming closer to tracing the evolution of the written word, for lack of a better term, as humans evolved themselves. Therefore, again I believe that the key to understand our past and future, is to preserve the caves by restricting entrance. The preservation of the ecosystem and the true “history” of these caves goes hand in hand. It is not one or the other. It is up to humans to decided whether to be selfish and view it as a tourist attraction, a fleeting glimpse at something “cool”, then forgotten, or to be graciously noble and relinquish such whims, leaving it up to the professionals to gather all the knowlege they can; because “you have to know where you come from, in order to truly know where you’re going.” :]

By: Derrek Hamblin

Derrek Hamblin — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:30:59 +0000

Wasn’t this from the Journey of Man video? The narrator related these paintings to the first people to come to Europe and stay. Looking back at the age man came to Europe, early in perspective to us, but much much later in time of man. These paintings must also reveal much of their culture and knowledge back then.