Petra's ancient paintings emerge from campfire smoke
Conservation experts almost gave up when they first saw the severely damaged wall paintings they had come to rescue in the ancient city of Petra.
Cloaked for centuries in grimy soot from bedouin camp fires, the blackened murals appeared beyond repair.
But three years of restoration revealed intricate and brightly-colored artwork, and some of the very few surviving examples of 2,000-year-old Hellenistic wall painting.
"It has actually been quite nerve-racking. We didn't actually realize that we could clean this painting and when we started we thought that would be impossible. It only emerged half way through," said conservation expert Stephen Rickerby, waving his hand at the decorated mural....
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Cloaked for centuries in grimy soot from bedouin camp fires, the blackened murals appeared beyond repair.
But three years of restoration revealed intricate and brightly-colored artwork, and some of the very few surviving examples of 2,000-year-old Hellenistic wall painting.
"It has actually been quite nerve-racking. We didn't actually realize that we could clean this painting and when we started we thought that would be impossible. It only emerged half way through," said conservation expert Stephen Rickerby, waving his hand at the decorated mural....