Earliest known rock art discovered in Indonesia
Archaeologists have discovered hand-stencil motifs at least 67,800 years old in southeast Sulawesi, suggesting that humans may have sailed from Borneo to the ancient continent of Sahul about 65,000 years ago.
Indonesia is renowned for being the home of some of the world’s oldest cave paintings, with Pleistocene paintings – older than 11,700 years – having been found previously in southwest Sulawesi and eastern Borneo. Southeastern Sulawesi has remained largely unexplored until now, although the first reports of rock art in the region date back to 1977.
Maxime Aubert and her team from Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia surveyed caves across the peninsula, with 44 showing evidence of rock art, including 14 previously unknown sites. By applying high-resolution laser-ablation uranium-series dating to tiny calcium-carbonate deposits that had formed over and beneath the paintings they were able to date them to at least 67,800 years ago, around 1,100 years older than the hand stencils believed to have been painted by Neanderthals in Spain.
The presence of this art dating to this period also indicates that humans first began to populate Sahul – the ancient continent which comprises modern-day Australia and Papua by sea, around 65,000 years ago.
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