This handout image released by Griffith University on July 3, 2024, shows a 51,000-year-old artwork which was first spotted in a cave on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island in 2017. Photo: Griffith University/ AFP A cave painting on an Indonesian island is believed to be the oldest known evidence of storytelling in art, researchers said on Thursday.
Scientists from Australia’s Griffith University, the Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) and Southern Cross University discovered and dated a cave painting on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
The painting, located in a limestone cave, depicts three humanlike figures interacting with a wild pig.
Scientists analysed tiny layers of calcium carbonate that had formed on top of the art to determine its age.
The results found the artwork was painted at least 51,200 years ago, making it the oldest known reliably dated cave art image in the world, and the earliest narrative art found anywhere, researchers said.
Lead researcher Adhi Agus Oktaviana said the discovery had important implications for understanding the origin of early art.
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“Our results are very surprising: none of the famous European Ice Age art is anywhere near as old as this, with the exception of some controversial finds in Spain, and this is the first-time rock art dates in Indonesia have ever been pushed beyond the 50,000-year mark,” Oktaviana said.
Co-lead Adam Brumm said the art cast new light on the role of storytelling in the history of art.
“It is noteworthy that the oldest cave art we have found in Sulawesi thus far consists of recognisable scenes: that is, paintings that depict humans and animals interacting in such a way that we can infer the artist intended to communicate a narrative of some kind – a story,” Brumm said.
The discovery suggested that narrative storytelling was a crucial part of early human artistic culture in Indonesia from a very early point in time.
“Humans have probably been telling stories for much longer than 51,200 years, but as words do not fossilise we can only go by indirect proxies like depictions of scenes in art – and the Sulawesi art is now the oldest such evidence by far that is known to archaeology,” Oktaviana said.