ART

Sulawesi: the Oldest Cave Painting

at least ~51,200 years ago

Palaeolithic · Middle Stone Age · Last glacial

A painted hunting scene in a cave of Sulawesi, Indonesia, is at least 51,200 years old, the oldest known cave painting.

Leang Karampuang cave, in the Maros-Pangkep karst of southern Sulawesi, Indonesia, carries a painted panel depicting human-like figures interacting with a wild suid. A crust of calcite formed over the pigment after its application, so that dating the crust yields a minimum age rather than the age of the work: the scene predates 51,200 years, which makes it the oldest known figurative art and the oldest known narrative scene. A neighbouring cave carries a hunting scene predating 50,200 years, some of whose figures combine human and animal characters.

Why it matters

The priority of the Indonesian sites over the decorated caves of Europe shifts the geographic frame in which figurative art was ordinarily described. These panels lying beyond the sea crossings that lead to island Southeast Asia, several authors conclude that the practice accompanied populations in movement rather than appearing at the end of their route. These representations also include, from the oldest known onwards, narrative composition and composite figures.

Dating & uncertainty

The ages cited are minima. At Leang Karampuang, uranium-thorium dating assigns the calcite crust at least 53,500 ± 2,300 years, which places the execution of the painting 51,200 years ago at the latest. The interval between that minimum age and the actual age of the work cannot be estimated by available methods.

Our species’ history as one day

20:05:563 h 54 min before midnight

if the 315,000 years of Homo sapiens were compressed into a single day