Anthropologists discover oldest cave art in Indonesia
Kathmandu, January 14. Archaeologists have discovered a life-size cave art of pigs in Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is believed to be the oldest surviving figurative artwork drawn by homo sapiens at least 45,500 years ago in the prehistoric ice-age.
Located between the limestone cliffs in a remote valley, the Leang Tedongnge cave is home to warty pigs carefully stroked with dark red ochre pigment. The art was first discovered in 2017 by Basran Burhan, a doctoral student at Griffith University while he was conducting a survey in collaboration with Indonesian authorities.
The team of researchers led by the archaeologists of Australia’s Griffith University and the Indonesian National Archaeological Research Centre claim that the region houses many cave arts. In 2014, they had discovered human hand stencil which dated to 40,000 years ago. Similarly, in 2019, the same team had found a cave art on a hunting scene which dated to 43,900 years.
Apart from Calcium and Uranium-dating, scientists are also trying to extract DNA samples from the residual saliva in the red pigment.
Click here to read the detailed research article entitled “Oldest cave art found in Sulawesi” published in Volume 7 of Journal Science Advances.
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