How 5000-yr-old Neolithic men painted their homes

[Charmaine]

How 5000-yr-old Neolithic men painted their homes

London, Oct 30 : A new research has revealed that our ancestors from 5,000 years ago painted their homes to brighten up their places too.

They used red, yellow and orange pigments from ground-up minerals and bound it with animal fat and eggs to make their paint, the new study from a Stone Age settlement on the island of Orkney revealed.

Several stones used to form the buildings painted and decorated by the locals in about 3,000 BC, most probably to to enhance important buildings and may have been found in entranceways or areas of the building, which had particular significance.

"''We have found seven stones in this ritual centre. Some of them were covered in paint and others appear to have had designs such as chevrons and zig zags painted on," The Daily Mail quoted Nick Card, of the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology, as saying.

"Paint pots have been found at various other sites before but we assumed this was for personal adornment. But we now know they used it to paint their walls," he added.

The study also found that humans used earthy colours like oranges, yellows and reddish-browns pigments probably derived from various minerals that had been crushed up and then mixed with animal fat or eggs.

--ANI
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