===Recent Discoveries===
[[File:aHR0cDovL3d3dy5saXZlc2NpZW5jZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzAwMi8yMTUvb3JpZ2luYWwvMDgwNDIyLXBhaW50aW5nLWRldGFpbC0wMi5qcGc=.jpg|thumbnail|right|300px| Fragmentary oil painting, Caves at Bamiyan, Afghanistan, 400-800 CE. Image Credit: National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo (Japan)]]
While Europeans have been credited throughout history with having developed and popularized the medium of oil paints, recent discoveries suggest that eastern cultures might have used the medium well in advance of their western neighbors.
Archaeological research performed in the early 2000s in the Bamiyan Valley in central Afghanistan uncovered examples of wall painting executed in oil paint that date to perhaps as early as the fifth century CE. These caves were once lavishly decorated and accompanied two spectacularly colossal statues of the Buddha. Though these sculptures, once considered by most as truly exceptional representations of early Buddhist art, were demolished by the Taliban in 2001, the surviving art documented in these surrounding chambers updates the larger cultural history of the medium of oil paints to propose that their popularity in other parts of the world soared much earlier than previously believed. <ref> Morgan, Llewelyn, <i> The Buddhas of Bamiyan</i> (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2012). </ref>
===Perils of Oil Paints===
