Scientists have discovered a painting believed to be the world’s oldest work of art on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
According to news agency AFPa 92 cm x 38 cm painting discovered inside the Leang Karampuang cave in the Maros-Pangkep region of South Sulawesi, depicts three people standing around a red wild boar. There are also other images of pigs in the cave. At the time of its discovery, the painting was in a poor state of preservation.
Laser-based research results show that the painting is about 51,200 years old – breaking the previous record set in 2019, also in Indonesia, of a painting that was dated at about 45,500 years old.
“This is the first time we’ve crossed the 50,000-year mark,” said Maxime Aubert, an archaeologist at Australia’s Griffith University and co-author of the study, calling it “the oldest evidence of human storytelling.”
Meanwhile, Griffith University archaeologist Adam Brumm, another author of the study, said “The juxtaposition of the images – how they are positioned in relation to each other and how they interact – is clearly intentional and it conveys an unmistakable sense of action. It is clear that something is happening between the people in the paintings and a story is being told.”
“The earliest rock art in Sulawesi is not ‘simple’. It is quite advanced and demonstrates the mental capabilities of the people of that time,” Aubert added. The researchers do not have much information about who created the paintings. However, Aubert speculates that the paintings may have been created by the first group of people who moved through Southeast Asia before reaching Australia around 65,000 years ago.
Associated AFP “The discovery of very ancient cave art in Indonesia has added to the view that Europe was not the birthplace of this art, as had long been thought. It also suggests that storytelling is a much older part of human history in general and art history in particular than previously recognized,” he said.
“It’s probably just a matter of time before we find older evidence,” he added.
Chris Stringer, an anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London who was not involved in the study, said the dates given for the Indonesian cave art were “quite provocative” because they were much older than those found elsewhere, including in Europe. Previously, a “lion man” statue found in Germany was dated to around 40,000 years old.
Mr. Stringer commented with AFP The team’s findings appear plausible but need to be confirmed by further dating. “In my view, this finding reinforces the idea that expressive art was first produced in Africa, before 50,000 years ago, and that the concept became widespread as humans moved to other places,” he said.
However, “if this is true, then much new supporting evidence from other regions including Africa has yet to emerge,” he said.