On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, scientists have discovered the world’s oldest known cave painting. The researchers used a laser to date the painting. They found it was created at least 51,200 years ago.
The painting is inside a cave called Leang Karampuang in an area of South Sulawesi province. The scientists used the laser to date crystal structures of the mineral calcium carbonate that formed naturally on top of the painting.
Maxime Aubert is an expert in archaeology at Griffith University in Australia. He was one of the leaders of the research published in the journal Nature. He said the new dating method is an improvement over other ways of dating rock paintings.
The painting is a dark red color. It shows a pig that is 92 centimeters by 38 centimeters. Three human-like images are near the pig.
The researchers think the painting is likely the oldest-known evidence of storytelling in art.
Griffith University archeologist Adam Brumm was another leader of the research team. He thinks the position of the human images near the pig gives the painting a feeling of action. “There is something happening between these figures. A story is being told,” he said.
The researchers also used the laser to estimate the date from another cave painting on Sulawesi. That cave is called Leang Bulu' Sipong 4. The painting in it shows part-human, part-animal figures hunting pigs and small buffalo.
"We, as humans, define ourselves as a species that tells stories, and these are the oldest evidence of us doing that," Aubert said.
Little is known about the people who created the Sulawesi cave paintings. Aubert said the paintings might be older than the age found by the new testing. The paintings might date closer to the time humans first came to the area, around 65,000 years ago.
Until now, the oldest-known cave painting was from another cave in Sulawesi, from at least 45,500 years ago.
The researchers said the Leang Karampuang painting is older than the cave paintings of Europe. The oldest known painting found in Europe is at El Castillo in Spain, dating to about 40,800 years ago.
Before the discovery of cave paintings in South Sulawesi in 2014, some experts thought humans first created art in Europe.
"This discovery of very old cave art in Indonesia drives home the point that Europe was not the birthplace of cave art,” Brumm said.
"The earliest Sulawesi rock art is not 'simple,'" Aubert added. "It is quite advanced and shows the mental capacity of people at the time."
I’m Andrew Smith.
