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WASHINGTON: Archaeologists have discovered the oldest known rock painting in the world – a life-size image of a wild pig that was made at least 45,500 years ago in Indonesia.
The finding described in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday (January 13) provides the earliest evidence of human settlement in the region.
Co-author Maxime Aubert, from Australia’s Griffith University, told AFP that it was found on the island of Sulawesi in 2017 by PhD student Basran Burhan, as part of surveys the team was conducting with Indonesian authorities. .
Leang Tedongnge Cave is located in a remote valley surrounded by steep limestone cliffs, an hour’s walk from the nearest road.
It’s only accessible during the dry season due to flooding during the rainy season, and members of the isolated Bugis community told the team that Westerners had never seen it before.
Measuring 136 by 54 centimeters, the warty Sulawesi pig was painted with dark red ocher pigment and has a short crest of upright hair, as well as a pair of horn-shaped facial warts characteristic of adult males of the species.
There are two handprints on the hindquarters of the pig, and it appears to be in front of two other pigs that are only partially preserved, as part of a narrative scene.
“The pig appears to be observing a fight or social interaction between two other warty pigs,” said co-author Adam Brumm.
Humans have hunted warty pigs from Sulawesi for tens of thousands of years, and they are a key feature of the region’s prehistoric artwork, particularly during the Ice Age.
EARLY HUMAN MIGRATION
Aubert, a dating specialist, identified a calcite deposit that had formed on top of the painting, then used isotope dating from the Uranium series to say for sure that the deposit was 45,500 years old.
This makes the painting at least that old, “but it could be much older because the dating we’re using only dates the calcite on top,” he explained.
“The people who did it were completely modern, they were like us, they had all the skills and tools to do whatever painting they liked,” he added.
The Leang Tedongnge cave in Sulawesi, Indonesia, where the painting was found. (Photo: AFP / Adhi Agus Oktaviana)
The previously dated rock art painting was found by the same team in Sulawesi. It depicted a group of part human and part animal figures hunting mammals, and was found to be at least 43,900 years old.
Cave paintings like these also help fill in the gaps in our understanding of early human migrations.
It is known that people came to Australia 65,000 years ago, but they probably would have had to cross the islands of Indonesia, known as “Wallacea”.
This site now represents the oldest evidence of humans in Wallacea, but more research is expected to help show that people were in the region much earlier, which would solve the puzzle of Australia’s settlement.
The team believes the artwork was made by Homo sapiens, as opposed to now-extinct human species like the Denisovans, but they can’t say for sure.
To make handprints, artists would have to place their hands on a surface and then spit pigment on it, and the team hopes to try to extract DNA samples from residual saliva.
