A 51,200-Year-Old Prehistoric Painting Of A Narrative Scene Was Discovered In Indonesia, Making It The Oldest Known Example Of Figurative Cave Art In The World
In Indonesia, a prehistoric painting of a narrative scene has been found to date back at least 51,200 years ago. It is the oldest known example of “figurative” cave art in the world. Figurative artwork refers to art that depicts animals, humans, or objects from real life; they are not abstract.
The painting is not just the earliest piece of figurative art, but it is also the oldest example of visual storytelling. It is located in a limestone cave called Leang Karampuang on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
“Narrative cave art shows that the painter(s) is/are conveying more information about images than just individual static images—they are telling us how to look at them in association,” said Maxime Aubert, a co-author of the study from Griffith University in Australia. “We, as humans, define ourselves as a species that tells stories, and these are the oldest evidence of us doing that.”
Aubert and his colleagues used a new approach called laser-ablation uranium-series (LA-U) imaging to analyze the cave art at Sulawesi and determine the age of similar works in the Maros-Pangkep region.
Their approach was based on a technique known as uranium-series dating, which researchers have utilized in the past to study deposits of calcite on the art in the area’s limestone caves.
According to Aubert, the new LA-U series technique will “revolutionize rock art dating.” It has proven to be more accurate, allowing his team to reach the earliest layers of calcium carbonate that had formed on the art.
The researchers dated the painting at Leang Karampuang to 51,200 years ago. The painting depicted a scene with three human-like figures interacting with a wild pig.
The previous earliest example of cave art in the world was a painting of a pig from the Leang Tedongnge site in Maros-Pangkep. It dates back to around 45,500 years ago.
In the latest study, the researchers also examined a painting from the Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 site in the same region. Before, the uranium-series method dated it to at least 43,900 years ago.
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But now, they have found that the painting is actually older than previously thought. Using the novel LA-U series technique, the researchers dated it to around 48,000 years ago.
In conclusion, these findings show that portrayals of animals and human figures in cave art originated earlier in history than what was believed in the past.
“The earliest Sulawesi rock art is not ‘simple’—it is quite advanced and shows the mental capacity of people at the time,” Aubert said.
“It also suggests that this capacity must have a much older origin, probably in Africa, and that older rock art are probably waiting discovery and dating.”
The study authors believe that the paintings they analyzed were created by modern humans, but they cannot rule out the idea that other human species might have made them.
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