A new study by archaeologists working on the Sulawesi cave painting say it is also the world's oldest example of storytelling. The painting reveals an artistically advanced society with its own folklore and spirituality.
A new study published on Thursday has found that 44,000-year-old cave paintings in Indonesia may be not only the oldest figurative artwork, but also the oldest example of pictorial storytelling.
The paintings, depicting human-like figures using spears and ropes to hunt wild boar, were discovered in 2017 on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. A team of Australian and Indonesian researchers have now published their initial findings in the journal Nature.
"The portrayal of multiple hunters confronting at least two separate prey species possibly suggests a game drive, a communal hunt in which animals are indiscriminately flushed from cover and directed towards waiting hunters," the scientists wrote.
The hunters in question appear to be therianthropes,or humans with animal characteristics. Until now, the oldest piece of art thought to depict these characteristics is a 40,000-year-old ivory figure found in a cave in Germany that includes a human body with a feline head.
"Therianthropes occur in the folklore or narrative fiction of almost every modern society and they are perceived as gods, spirits, or ancestral beings in many religions worldwide," said study co-author Adam Brumm, an archaeologist at Australia's Griffith University.
Indonesian discoveries challenge Euro-centric art history
Since the 1950s, hundreds of sites of cave paintings have been found in the Indonesian regions of Sulawesi and Borneo, challenging the idea that painting originated in Europe. For comparison, the famous cave paintings in Lascaux, France, are only 17,000 years old.
Although the Sulawesi painting is in poor condition, the researchers were able to determine that they revealed an artistically advanced culture with its own folklore and spiritual beliefs.
"(The scene) may be regarded not only as the earliest dated figurative art in the world but also as the oldest evidence for the communication of a narrative in Palaeolithic art," they said.
"This is noteworthy, given that the ability to invent fictional stories may have been the last and most crucial stage in the evolutionary history of human language and the development of modern-like patterns of cognition."
Indonesian cave paintings - Rewriting art history
Prehistoric cave paintings in Indonesia are as old as ancient art in Europe, a new study found. The images found in caves on Sulawesi Island show humans were drawing in different parts of the world some 40,000 years ago.
Image: Anthony Dosseto 2013
Cave art
The ancient paintings were found in seven caves on the central Indonesian island of Sulawesi. This photograph was taken from the entrance of a cave in the vicinity of the sites where rock art was found and dated.
Image: Anthony Dosseto 2013
'Pig-deer'
The prehistoric images, at least 40,000 years old, depict animals and the outline of human hands. This picture shows hand stencils and images of two babi rusas or pig-deer - pig-like animals native to Sulawesi and the surrounding islands of Indonesia - at a Leang Pettakere cave. Red ochres were used to produce the red and mulberry-colored paintings.
Image: Anthony Dosseto 2013
Different times
Also at Leang Pettakere, one can see different generations of paintings: the hand stencil on the back on the 'pig-deer' was most likely produced before the babi rusa painting that overlies it. Sulawesi's rock art was first reported by Dutch archeologist Heeren-Palm in the 1950s, but no one had tried to date the cave art since then.
Image: Anthony Dosseto 2013
Similarities
Researchers found the Indonesian paintings were comparable in age to the oldest-known rock art from Europe, long thought to be the birthplace of art. There are also other similarities as seen in these hand stencils and red disks drawn in the El Castillo cave in Spain between 37,000 and 40,000 years ago. These are some of the oldest cave paintings in Europe.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Rodrigo De Balbin Behrmann
How old?
Sulawesi's rock art was first reported by Dutch archeologist Heeren-Palm in the 1950s. For many years, archeologists thought that it was part of the pre-Neolithic (Mesolithic) period some 10,000 years ago. The latest phase of research began in 2011 when Indonesian and Australian archeologists started excavations at Leang Burung 2 in the Maros region and ultimately succeeded in dating the caves.
Image: Anthony Dosseto 2013
The landscape
The landscape of the Maros region where the paintings are found: rivers have carved through the limestone, and a flourishing agriculture takes place in the valleys. In the remnant limestone towers and plateau, countless caves can be found and in many, rock art is displayed.
Image: Anthony Dosseto 2013
Protection needed
While many sites still preserve beautiful examples of rock art in this region, many others may have been destroyed by erosion. An additional threat may come from the growing interest people will have in the region. Indonesian authorities said they plan to place the cave paintings on a list of the nation's official "cultural heritage" and apply to have them included in UNESCO's World Heritage List.
Image: Anthony Dosseto 2013
Hunting narrative
In 2017, scientists found what is now considered Indonesia - and the world's - oldest artwork. Believed to be about 44,000 years old, this Sulawesi painting is also thought to be the world's first pictorial narrative, showing a seen of human-like figures hunting boar.
