In 2017 , archaeologist Adam Brumm received an exciting WhatsApp subject matter : His colleagues in Sulawesi , Indonesia , haddiscovereda cavepaintingdepicting three jumping pigs , along with other drawing , on the limestone wall of the island ’s Maros - Prangkep cave . Some of the paintings were find to be over 45,500 years old , predating the famous Lascaux andChauvet cave paintingsby several thousand years .
Now , a new study in the journalNaturesuggests some of the Maros - Prangkep drawings are even old — and one , a fit of three human - similar figures and a pig , may be theoldest narrative artworkever come across .
Using a different date technique , a team including Brumm and take by Indonesian archaeologistAdhi Agus Oktavianadetermined that theartwas create at least 51,200 years ago .
A Matter of Methods
Initially , the Sulewasi paintings were dated using a solution - based U - series method acting , which measure the radioactive decomposition of U into atomic number 90 from calcium carbonate deposits . The deposit are often found on and around ancient cave paintings .
Though widely used inarchaeology , the method acting tends to underestimate the true age of cave prowess . For their cogitation , Oktaviana ’s team used a Modern , more accurate dating method acting foretell laser ablation uranium imagery , which date Ca carbonate that is physically closer to the cave art ’s paint .
One painting of a hunting panorama , previously estimated to be at least 43,900 geezerhood erstwhile , was found to be over 4000 years old that that . The cop - and - three - man scene , which had never been date , was find to have been create at least 51,200 years ago .
The results make the scene the oldest known narrative house painting , but not the quondam cave art . That form of address presently rests with a collection of64,000 - class - old hand printsat the Maltravieso Cave in Spain .
Art’s Murky Origins
The results of the study recontextualizes our knowledge of when and where figurative art first evolve . “ Presently , the early wide accepted grounds for figure of speech - making by our coinage is from MiddleStone Agesouthern Africa [ around 100,000 - 75,000 eld ago ] and comprises geometric motif , ” the author save . The picture in Sulawesi adds to the interrogative sentence of “ whether the pedigree of figurative depiction can be traced to an artistic culture that arose in Africa after the growth of this early tradition of producing non - representational marks , or somewhere outside it after the dispersal ofH. sapiens , including in Southeast Asia . ”
Previously , experts who believed figural art emerged after humans ’ dispersal from Africa insisted that the traditionbegan in Europe , not Asia . Oktaviana ’s squad shows that the older painting in Indonesia predate any known European cave artwork , and throws another inkling of ignitor on the starting time of human expression .
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