On Celebes Island Indonesia, A group of archaeologists made a discovery that amazes the world. Finding The oldest cave painting of mankind Known to date: a life-size photo of a wild boar made at least 45,500 years ago. The work took about 1,600 years before it was even thought to be the longest lasting.
The discovery, described in Science Advances, provides the first evidence of human settlement in the area.
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Archaeologist Maxime Obert of Griffith University in Australia, one of the paper’s authors, told Dr. France Press agency Doctoral student Sarran Burhan found the cave painting on the island of Sulawesi in 2017, when an archaeological team conducted explorations with Indonesian authorities in the area.
The discovery was made in Leang Tedongnge Cave, located in a remote valley surrounded by steep limestone cliffs. It is an hour’s walk from the nearest road and is only accessible in the dry season due to floods during the rainy season.
Members of the isolated Bugis community said they had never seen it before.
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Warty pig
The cave painting is 136 cm long and 54 cm high. It represents the warty pig of Celebes and was painted in a dark red ocher dye. It has a small hairy crest and a pair of horn-shaped warts that are typical of adult males of the type. There are even two handprints on the animal’s hind legs, which appear to be in front of other pigs only partially preserved, as part of a narrative scene.
Adam Broome, one of the work’s authors, said, “The pig appears to be observing a fight or social interaction between other warty pigs.”
Sulawesi pigs or warty pigs have been hunted by humans for tens of thousands of years. These animals are a major presence in prehistoric artworks in the region, particularly during the Ice Age.
Acquaintance
Aubert, a dating specialist, identified the calcite deposits that formed on top of the board. He then used isotopic dating of the uranium chain to confirm that the sediment was 45,500 years old.
However, the expert stated, “It could be much older because the dating we use only chronicles the calcite above. The people who made it – continued – were totally contemporary, they were like us, they had all the abilities and tools to make whatever painting they liked.”
The pig appears to be observing a fight or social interaction between other warty pigs
The oldest cave painting to date was found by the same team in Sulawesi. It depicted a group of human figures and part animals hunting mammals, and it turns out to be no less than 43,900 years old.
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Rock paintings like this also help bridge gaps in our understanding of early human migrations. Humans are known to have arrived in Australia 65,000 years ago, but they may have had to cross the islands of Indonesia, known as ‘Wallacea’.
The site now represents the oldest evidence of humans in Wallacia, but more research is expected to help show that people were in the area much earlier. From that way The riddle of Australia’s settlement will be solved.
The team believes the artwork was made by Homo sapiens rather than a now extinct human species such as the Denisovans, but this cannot be said.
To make the handprints, the artists had to place it on the surface and then spit the dye onto it, so the team would try to extract DNA samples from the remaining saliva.
