World’s oldest work of art discovered in Indonesian cave

Paris. A cave painting of a large wild boar with three human figures around it is believed to be the oldest work of art in the world, dated by experts to 51,000 years ago.

The archaeological discovery was announced by a group of scientists who had already discovered a hunting scene in another nearby cave in 2019, which was then estimated to be 44,000 years old.

This painting, made with red pigments, It is the oldest evidence of a narrativesaid Maxime Aubert, an archaeologist at Australia’s Griffith University.

It is the first time that we have surpassed the 50 thousand year barrierstressed Aubert, co-author of a study published yesterday in the scientific journal Nature.

Our discovery suggests that storytelling was a much older part of life than previously thought.said another of the authors, archaeologist Adam Brumm, at a press conference.

Laser dating

To date the discovery, researchers used a new method that employs lasers and computer software.

It is a more precise, easier, faster and cheaper laser ablation technique that requires much smaller rock samples than the previous uranium series method, Aubert explained.

The team first tested the new technique in the previous cave.

The system determined that the hunting scene was at least 48,000 years old, 4 millennia older than the uranium series method determined in 2019.

The team subsequently applied this laser procedure to an undated painting in another cave on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, discovered in 2017.

It was found to be at least 51,200 years old, surpassing the previous record.

The painting, which is in poor condition, shows three people around a wild boar.

We don’t know exactly what they are doing.Aubert admitted.

He speculated that the paintings were made by the first group of humans to move from Southeast Asia before reaching Australia 65,000 years ago.

It may only be a matter of time before we find older samples.he added.

Mystery of the artistic void

Humans are believed to have first evolved in Africa over 300,000 years ago.

The earliest known human-made images are simple lines and sketches in ochre, found in South Africa, dating back 100,000 years.

But then there is a huge emptiness in art as far back as the cave paintings of Indonesia, 50 thousand years later; The question is, why isn’t it everywhere?plan-tea Aubert.

One theory is that art elsewhere did not survive the test of time. Another is that prehistoric art is there, waiting to be discovered.

It was once thought that the first narrative art had emerged in Europe. A statue of lion man found in Germany is dated 40 thousand years ago.

The date assigned to Indonesian cave art is very provocativebecause it is much older than what has been found elsewhere, including Europe, said Chris Stringer, an anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London.

Stringer, who was not involved in the research, said the veteran team’s findings appeared robust but needed to be confirmed by further dating.

In my opinion, this find reinforces the idea that figurative art was first produced in Africa, more than 50 thousand years ago, and that the concept spread as our species dispersed. If that is true, much new supporting evidence from other areas, including Africa, has yet to emerge.he added.