# art: Nomadic masters; Neanderthals created art.

AA << analysed samples of red residues collected from the flowstone surface and compared them with iron oxide-rich deposits in the cave. They concluded that the ochre-based pigment was intentionally applied, i.e. painted -- by Neanderthals, as modern humans had yet to make their appearance on the European continent -- and that, importantly, it had probably been brought to the cave from an external source. >>

<< variations in pigment composition between samples were detected, corresponding to different dates of application, sometimes many thousands of years apart. Thus, it seems that many generations of Neanderthals visited this cave and coloured the draperies of the great flowstone formation with red ochre. >>

<< This behaviour indicates a motivation to return to the cave and symbolically mark the site, and it bears witness to the transmission of a tradition down through the generations. >>

Neanderthals indeed painted Andalusia’s Cueva de Ardales. CNRS. 

Aug 2, 2021. 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210802160624.htm

Africa Pitarch Marti, Joao Zilhao, et al. The symbolic role of the underground world among Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals. PNAS. 118 (33) e2021495118; doi: 10.1073/ pnas.2021495118. Aug 17, 2021. 

https://www.pnas.org/content/118/33/e2021495118  

# life: inside the mysterious (i.e. secret) Yunnan cave, a key to the bizarre jump of the Chinese covid-19 virus

<< In 2004, deep in the wilderness of China’s Yunnan province, a group of scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology discovered a cave full of wild bats carrying hundreds of SARS-related viruses. Their work, published in a draft paper in 2005, ( Science. 2005 Oct 28;310(5748):676-9. Epub 2005 Sep 29.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16195424 ) unearthed the link between SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and bats for the first time. >>

<< Now the virologist who led that study, Shi Zhengli, has revealed one of the strains found in that cave - the exact location of which is a closely guarded secret - is almost identical to the 2019-nCoV coronavirus which has so far killed at least 1,115 people and infected more than 45,000 worldwide. >>

<< Professor Shi ran the genome sequence of 2019-nCoV - now officially known as COVID-19 - through the bat-related virus database she built up over ten years and found it was a 96 per cent match to a virus found in the droppings of horseshoe bats. >>

Marnie O’Neill. Mysterious bat cave in Chinese wilderness could hold key to coronavirus. news.com.au Feb 13, 2020.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/mysterious-bat-cave-in-chinese-wilderness-could-hold-key-to-coronavirus/news-story/530063aeb9de7020e626f1c4839b9777

Also

Zhou, P., Yang, X., Wang, X. et al. A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin. Nature. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2012-7. Jan 29, 2020.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2012-7

Human uses of bats (also in chinese traditional medicine). Wikipedia. Last edited 11 days ago by Enwebb.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_uses_of_bats

Bat as food. Wikipedia. Last edited 7 days ago by Enwebb.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_as_food