This is fascinating because it makes those ancient paintings feel suddenly, almost startlingly, human. We usually look at cave art across this enormous gulf of time and think about “prehistoric people” as an abstraction. But finding human DNA on or near those walls shrinks that distance.
Someone stood there. Someone touched that stone. Someone may have mixed pigment, pressed a hand against the wall, or simply steadied themselves in the darkness. Thousands of years later, a trace of that person can still remain.
That is what I love about archaeology. Every once in a while, history stops being dates and artifacts and becomes a person again. And somehow a fingerprint, a brushstroke, or a bit of DNA can whisper louder than an entire textbook.
I wonder at the possible connections between the Luoye and modern Thais, Vietnamese and Lao. Could the Luoye be the ancestors of one of these three groups?
Closest link is the Zhuang, still the majority in Guangxi. Thai and Lao are the same language family, so cousins rather than descendants. Vietnamese is unrelated, though the Lac Viet are sometimes connected in older scholarship. All of it stretches modern categories over a people known almost only from a cliff face.
I find this fascinating as an artist - I wonder how many modern paintings will survive the centuries as these have wedded to the ancient rocks themselves. Even Michaelangelo’s ‘Last Supper’ started disappearing from Vatican wall because he failed to prepare the ground properly and only survives with constant restoration.
Those cave painters seem to have had a better understanding of chemistry!
This is fascinating because it makes those ancient paintings feel suddenly, almost startlingly, human. We usually look at cave art across this enormous gulf of time and think about “prehistoric people” as an abstraction. But finding human DNA on or near those walls shrinks that distance.
Someone stood there. Someone touched that stone. Someone may have mixed pigment, pressed a hand against the wall, or simply steadied themselves in the darkness. Thousands of years later, a trace of that person can still remain.
That is what I love about archaeology. Every once in a while, history stops being dates and artifacts and becomes a person again. And somehow a fingerprint, a brushstroke, or a bit of DNA can whisper louder than an entire textbook.
It’s kinda weird but interesting. 🤔
I wonder at the possible connections between the Luoye and modern Thais, Vietnamese and Lao. Could the Luoye be the ancestors of one of these three groups?
Closest link is the Zhuang, still the majority in Guangxi. Thai and Lao are the same language family, so cousins rather than descendants. Vietnamese is unrelated, though the Lac Viet are sometimes connected in older scholarship. All of it stretches modern categories over a people known almost only from a cliff face.
Thanks so much for the clarification.
This is fascinating material.
🌹🌹🌹🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 fascinating‼️ Thank you ‼️
I find this fascinating as an artist - I wonder how many modern paintings will survive the centuries as these have wedded to the ancient rocks themselves. Even Michaelangelo’s ‘Last Supper’ started disappearing from Vatican wall because he failed to prepare the ground properly and only survives with constant restoration.
Those cave painters seem to have had a better understanding of chemistry!