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Finding Altamira

Started by SGOS, October 02, 2016, 09:18:08 PM

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SGOS

A true story undoubtedly with some Hollywood spin (Antonio Banderas).  In 1869, an amateur archeologist and his 9 year old daughter discover prehistoric paintings in a cave in Spain.  The paintings are obviously old and archeologists estimate from the last ice age.  Predating Adam and Eve,  Actually, they are much older, but it's 1869, and it was the best dating they could do.  The Catholic Church gets its nose out of joint, and does everything to destroy the man's reputation and family.  Rival archeologists contribute to discrediting the find, calling the discoverer a fraud, but in the end science does prevail.  The estimated age of the Earth at that time was 18 million years old.  So dating was much less refined that today.

I've never heard of this find, well at least I don't remember the name of the cave.  I may have just of heard of it as "some cave in Spain" when reading about different locations where paintings were found.  This may have been the first one that was found, at least the movie is scripted so that is implied.

I love it when the Church gets pissed off at science and then has to give up some of its dogma.  They keep doing that to themselves, and you would think they would have learned to be a bit more circumspect by now.  Of course scientists don't all flock to embrace all a new discovery in the ever changing world of science, either.