Indonesia: 51,200-year-old painting of pig, humans declared world’s oldest

A 51,200-year-old cave painting was uncovered on an Indonesian island, making it the oldest evidence of storytelling in art ever found.

The discovery took place on the island of Sulawesi, inside a limestone cave called Leang Karampuang. Inside the cave, the researchers stumbled upon a mysterious painting depicting a scene unlike any other found so far. The artwork showcases “three human-like figures interacting with a wild pig.”

This painting was spotted by researchers from Australia’s Griffith University, the Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), and Southern Cross University.

“Humans have probably been telling stories for much longer than 51,200 years, but as words do not fossilize we can only go by indirect proxies like depictions of scenes in art – and the Sulawesi art is now the oldest such evidence by far that is known to archaeology,” said Adhi Agus Oktaviana, an Indonesian rock art specialist from BRIN.

Use of new dating technique

For years, Europe held the crown for the oldest known cave paintings. But this new artwork has smashed this previously held record.

How did they pinpoint such an ancient age? The answer lies in a cutting-edge technique called laser ablation U-series (LA-U-series) analysis. This procedure studies microscopic layers of calcium carbonate that accumulate on top of the artwork, thereby revealing a precise minimum age.

The findings indicated that the underlying artwork was created at least 51,200 years ago by early humans, making it the earliest narrative art discovered anywhere.

“We have previously used the uranium-series method to date very old rock art in two parts of Indonesia, Sulawesi and Borneo, but our new LA-U-series technique is more accurate, allowing us to date the earliest calcium carbonate layers formed on the art and get closer to the point in time the art was created. It will revolutionise rock art dating,” explained Professor Maxime Aubert, who co-developed this technique and is a specialist in archaeological science at GCSCR.

This new technique promises a leap forward in rock art dating. Archeologists will be able to distinguish natural alterations and obtain more reliable age determinations.

Artistic skills of ancient humans

Surprisingly, none of the famed European Ice Age art is quite as old as this latest finding, except for certain contentious finds in Spain.

“This is the first-time rock art dates in Indonesia have ever been pushed beyond the 50,000-year mark,” Oktaviana said. This Indonesian artwork demonstrates that storytelling was most likely a key component of early human creative expression.

As per the press release , the team also revisited another cave site in Sulawesi, Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4. Using the new LA-U-series technique, they were able to refine the age of a previously dated scene depicting therianthropes (part-human, part-animal beings) hunting animals. This raised the artwork’s minimum age to roughly 48,000 years, up from at least 44,000 years in previous estimates.

The Sulawesi cave paintings offer a captivating glimpse into the lives of our distant relatives, suggesting that they possessed artistic abilities and used them to communicate stories, thoughts, and experiences.

The findings were published in the journal Nature.