New dating technique finds painting on island of Sulawesi is 6,000 years older than previous record holder
The world’s oldest known picture story is a cave painting almost 6,000 years older than the previous record holder, found about 10km away on the same island in Indonesia, an international team of archaeologists has said.
The painting, believed to be at least 51,200 years old, was found at Leang Karampuang cave on the east Indonesian island of Sulawesi, researchers from Griffith University, Southern Cross University and the Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency wrote in the journal Nature.
Samples were collected in 2017, but weren’t dated until earlier this year.
The previous record holder was a lifesize picture of a wild pig believed to be created at least 45,500 years ago in a cave at Leang Tedongnge.
The recently discovered painting is of three therianthropes – or human-animal hybrids – and a wild pig.
Adhi Agus Oktaviana, the lead author and a PhD student at Griffith University, said the findings were “very surprising”.
He said the art was much older than famous European ice-age art, such as paintings in the Lascaux caves in France, which are believed to be about 20,000 years old.
The finding contradicts the academic view that early figurative cave art consisted of single figure panels rather than scenes where figures interacted with each other.
