51,000-year-old cave painting may be earliest scene depicted through art
The Peninsula
Among the hundreds of caves hidden in the limestone karsts of Indonesia s Sulawesi island, a work of art faded into a rock wall could be of global imp...
Among the hundreds of caves hidden in the limestone karsts of Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, a work of art faded into a rock wall could be of global importance. The painting is the oldest known scene created by humans, dated to at least 51,200 years ago, scientists say.
It was evidence that humans were capable of storytelling in the distant past, said Adam Brumm, a professor of archaeology at Griffith University’s Australian Research Center for Human Evolution and an author of the study, which was published in Nature on Thursday.
"Storytelling is a hugely important part of human evolution, and possibly even it helps to explain our success as a species,” he said in a briefing about the research."But finding evidence for it in art, especially in very early cave art, is exceptionally rare.”
"We don’t know exactly what’s going on in this scene,” he added of the cave painting. "But it’s clearly communicating some sort of story that involves the interaction between three humanlike figures and a boar.”
The cave’s elevated position, which would not have been convenient for everyday life, could suggest the Sulawesi residents of 50,000 BC or so went there specifically to paint or to paint as part of some other special practice, he added.
