The technique of painting in oils was developed in Asia as long as 800 years before it appeared in Europe, according to a new report in the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectroscopy. The research is based on an analysis of murals found inside caves at Bamian in Afghanistan.

"This is the earliest clear example of oil paintings in the world," said Yoko Taniguchi, a historian at Tokyo's National Research Institute for Cultural Properties and one of the authors of the report.

The binders and pigments used in the Bamian murals were identified using gas chromatographs at the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles and a variety of X-ray technologies at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France.

The synchrotron technology enabled researchers to study each layer in the paintings, identifying pigments and binders.