KABUL , Afghanistan ( CNN ) -- Scientists have found what they described this week as the earliest oil paintings ever discovered . Afghan murals show oil painting was going on for centuries earlier in Asia than Europe . Murals found on cave walls in Afghanistan prove that painting with oil had been going on in Asia for centuries before artists used the technique in Europe , scientists said this week . Until now , art historians believed that oil painting started in Europe in the 15th century . Scientists found the murals in a network of caves where monks lived and prayed in the Afghan region of Bamiyan , according to a statement on the Web site of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility , where the ancient paintings were analyzed . Until 2001 , two colossal 6th-century statues of Buddhas stood at the mouth of the caves . Then the Taliban , which then ruled Afghanistan , blew up the statues on the grounds that they were un-Islamic . The action drew international condemnation . Inside the caves , scientists found murals painted in the 7th century . They show images of Buddha in vermilion robes sitting cross-legged amid palm leaves and mythical creatures . In 12 of 50 caves , the murals were painted using drying oils -- perhaps from walnuts and poppy seeds -- the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility said . Its findings on the age of the oil paintings were published this week in The Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry . `` This is the earliest clear example of oil paintings in the world , '' said Yoko Taniguchi , leader of the team of scientists . Bamiyan , about 130 kilometers ( 80 miles ) northwest of Kabul , was once a thriving center of commerce and Buddhism . The paintings , scientists say , were probably the work of artists who traveled along the Silk Road , the ancient trade route between China , across Central Asia 's desert to the West . The Taliban used dozens of explosives to demolish the Buddha statues in Bamiyan . Museums and governments around the world had hoped to save the two Buddhas , the earliest of which is thought to have been carved into sandstone cliffs in the third century A.D. At heights of 53 meters and 36 meters , the statues were the tallest standing Buddhas in the world . Later in 2001 , U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States . Now , the United Nations cultural agency , UNESCO , is trying to restore the bigger of the two statues . The task could take years . E-mail to a friend .
Afghan cave murals show Asia oil painting pre-dates European . Art found in caves in Bamiyan , central Afghanistan . Score: 6