Discovered in the mountains of South Sulawesi, this prehistoric rock painting depicting a pig and three human-like figures is believed to be the oldest known cave painting on Earth.
AA Oktaviana et al./Griffith University/Nature 2024This 51,200-year-old rock painting, which is thought to depict a hunting scene, has been named the oldest known cave painting in the world.
In recent years, researchers have been unearthing prehistoric cave art in remote locations across Indonesia, and in 2018 they discovered the oldest known depiction of an animal in a cave on the island of Sulawesi. A year later, they found the oldest known example of narrative cave art ever found.
Now, a new dating method has dated Indonesian rock art first discovered in 2017 to a record-breaking 51,200 years ago, making it the oldest known cave painting in the world.
This historic discovery pushes back the timeline of both the origins of human art and the evolution of our capacity for complex, abstract thought.
World’s oldest cave paintings discovered
AA Oktaviana et al./Griffith University/Nature 2024A map showing the area on Sulawesi where the world’s oldest cave paintings were found.
In recent years, a number of prehistoric cave paintings have been discovered across the islands of Southeast Asia. In 2018, archaeologists discovered what is believed to be the world’s oldest known painting of an animal in Borneo. The painting depicts three cows and dates back more than 40,000 years.
Then in 2019, researchers discovered even older rock art in Sulawesi, depicting animals dating back 44,000 years.
Now, researchers think they’ve found an even older cave painting nearby: Discovered in 2017 in the Reang Karampuang cave in South Sulawesi, the painting depicts three human-like figures interacting with a pig, and has been dated using new technology.
The researchers used a laser to cut the rocks into tiny pieces that could be easily examined. The new method is “a major step forward in increasing the resolution and precision of dating,” said Tristen Jones, a rock-art expert at the University of Sydney. Guardian.
Amazingly, this new method revealed that the Leang Karampuan rock art is at least 51,200 years old, making it the oldest cave painting ever discovered.
The researchers distinguish the cave wall painting from a 73,000-year-old drawing made with a type of primitive crayon that was discovered on a small stone in a South African cave in 2018.
Dig deeper into the story of the oldest cave paintings ever discovered
Ratno Sardi/CC-BY 4.0 DeedThe research team that contributed to the discovery of the world’s oldest cave paintings.
According to a newly published study in the journal NatureThe researchers used a dating technique called laser ablation uranium-series imaging. They used a laser to cut out rock pieces just 0.002 inches long. These tiny samples allowed the researchers to perform a higher-resolution analysis of the cave’s calcite deposits.
These deposits grow over time, allowing researchers to estimate the age of rock art buried beneath them. The technique also prevents the damage often caused by previous methods.
When the research team finished their examination, they were astonished at how old the rock art was.
“These drawings found in Indonesia push the date back to about 20,000 years ago, which is a real breakthrough,” Derek Hodgson, an archaeologist and scientific adviser to a European research group investigating the development of writing, told Live Science.
As for the purpose and meaning behind the world’s oldest cave painting, researchers believe it could serve a spiritual function as well as telling a story. For example, the placement of the figure in relation to the pig could suggest that the painting depicts a hunting scene.
“Early humans may have climbed into high-altitude caves to create these works of art,” said co-author Maxime Aubert, an archaeologist and geochemist at Griffith University. Live Science“Maybe there were stories or rituals associated with viewing the artworks, we don’t know, but these seem to be special places in the landscape.”
Now the researchers hope to continue their work to piece together a historical timeline of prehistoric activity in the region and better understand the story of when, how and why humans created the world’s oldest cave art.
Read about the world’s oldest cave paintings, then venture into 11 incredible underground cities from around the world, then read about the mysterious Nazca Lines, which stretch for over 100 miles in Peru.
