Oldest Painting of the Western World.

Archaeologists digging an Etruscan tomb near Rome had found the oldest painting of the Western civilization.

Experts could barely contain their excitement as they showed reporters five roaring lions and a flock of waterbirds that have emerged from the ground at the buried Etruscan city of Veio north of Rome.

There are Egyptian paintings older than the ones at Veio - as well as far older cave paintings - but Italian experts believe the new tomb illustrations are the oldest examples of a Western tradition that was then developed by Greece and Rome. Experts say the lions, believed to portray the terrors of the Underworld, and the waterfowl, thought to represent the flight of the prince’s soul into the Afterlife, were the finest examples of Etruscan painting from this period.

Link - via Fortrean Times