Sin

As I crossed the Murgia Plateau , curiosity wouldn't allow me to pass pass the Crypt of Original Sin, maybe because it is situated in a winery. In a ravine, below ground level, there is a thousand years old cave occupied on and off since the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras.
Around the 9th century it became the home of monks who had come over to southern Italy from Eastern Europe and Asia Minor. They created a chapel and covered the interior with frescoes.
For most of the last millennium, the cave and its art have existed in obscurity. One 19th century historian drew pictures of it, but by the 1960s it was mostly used as a shelter for sheepherders.
In 1963, a group of students exploring the area heard rumours of the Crypt and its wall art, and found it and then struggled with Matera’s reputation as the “shame of Italy” to get it recognised. Archaeologists only started to examine it in 1981, and in 1993, UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site, ensuring that the cave would be restored and preserved.
By 2005, the crypt was opened to visitors but photography was and still is forbidden. The knowledgable archaeologist guiding the tour explained that we could download as many good quality images as we liked from their website.
If you care to see them look here:

http://criptadelpeccatooriginale.it/index.php?l…

He also drew our attention to an unusual feature of the pictures. There are 5 sites in the world where Adam and Eve are depicted standing next to a figtree, (hence the figleaves,) suggesting that the forbidden fruit was not an apple as is commonly thought but a fig. This one is the earliest.
In contrast to statements in the text, he also believed that he could detect the hands of three different artists. He thought that this would be consistent with the way medievil ateliers had one master designer and apprentices to colour in the details.
Luckily grapes and their product are not forbidden: imbibing too much may be a sin though. Czytaj więcej