Find on Sulawesi

Oldest figurative cave painting discovered

On Sulawesi, researchers have discovered the oldest figurative cave painting (picture).(Bild: AFP/Griffith University)

Archaeologists have dated a rock painting in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi to at least 51,200 years ago. According to research, this is the world's oldest known figurative painting.

According to the researchers, the painting shows three human-like figures interacting with a wild boar. The painting is located in the Maros Pangkep karst area, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

"The results suggest that both the depiction of human-like figures and animals and the use of composed scenes in art have an older origin in human history than previously thought," it said in a statement.

Another rock painting with a hunting scene could also be newly dated and, according to the results, is at least 48,000 years old - and therefore 4,000 years older than previously thought. The study was published in the journal "Nature".

Prehistoric rock art provides important information about early human cultures - but it is not easy to determine the age of these depictions accurately and reliably. A team led by archaeologists Adhi Agus Oktaviana and Maxime Aubert from Griffith University in Australia has now succeeded in doing this using an alternative form of uranium-thorium dating, a special type of radiometric dating. The scientists worked with a special laser technique.

Until now, it was widely assumed that figurative art is of much more recent origin. The study calls this into question: the results imply that there was a rich culture of visual storytelling on Sulawesi at an early stage in the history of Homo sapiens, especially with regard to the relationship between humans and animals, the researchers write. In Europe, such representations would only have developed tens of thousands of years later.

Sulawesi lies to the east of Borneo and is popular with tourists from all over the world because of its volcanoes, coral reefs and diving spots. The karst region of Maros Pangkep is located around 50 kilometers north of the capital Makassar in the Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park. The spectacular rock paintings in the caves were discovered in the 1950s.