Welcome to Erin Mankie's Cabinet of Curiosity's, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm

and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosity's.

Art is an ever-evolving concept from ancient cave paintings to Egyptian hieroglyphs and

all the way through Impressionism, Cubism and Campbell's soup cans.

The art world never stands still, but beyond the images themselves, how they're made

has also changed.

Those cave paintings were done using ground-up minerals like ochre and charcoal.

Artists like Rembrandt and Van Gogh worked in paints made of linseed oil and pigments

to achieve their signature looks.

But in the 15th and 16th centuries, a different material was introduced to the process.

And by today's standards, its origin was highly unusual and controversial.

It all started with the ancient Greeks and their use of a thing called bitumen.

It was a black viscous substance that was utilized in various applications from construction

to curing the common toothache.

We also use bitumen today, but mainly for paving roads and filling in potholes, as bitumen

is commonly known as asphalt.

To the Greeks though, it was a miracle substance, typically found seeping from the ground throughout

Persia.

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