NEW YORK (AP) — Handprints on cave walls in a largely unexplored area of Indonesia may be the oldest rock art examined so far, dating back to at least 67,800 years ago.
The tan-colored prints analyzed by Indonesian and Australian researchers on the island of Sulawesi were made by blowing pigment over hands placed against the cave walls, leaving an outline. Some of the fingertips were also subtly modified to appear more pointed.
This ancient art form indicates that Sulawesi was home to a vibrant artistic culture. To determine the age of the artwork, researchers dated mineral crusts that had formed on top of the art.
Paleoanthropologist Genevieve von Petzinger expressed her excitement about the findings, stating, It fits everything I’d been thinking.
Indonesia is renowned for hosting some of the earliest cave drawings globally, and scientists have analyzed numerous examples of ancient art, including simplistic markings on bones and stones that extend back hundreds of thousands of years. For example, cross-hatched markings on a rock in South Africa have been dated to about 73,000 years ago.
The new art from southeastern Sulawesi is the oldest found on cave walls and signifies a sophisticated tradition of rock art, which could represent a cultural practice shared among early humans, noted study author Maxime Aubert from Griffith University.
Scientists are keen to understand when early humans began creating art, progressing from basic dots and lines to more complex representations of life and the environment. These cave drawings strengthen the timeline for the dawn of human artistic expression.
It is uncertain whose hands created these prints; they could belong to the ancient group known as Denisovans, who may have interacted with our Homo sapiens ancestors, or they may originate from modern humans migrating from Africa, traversing through the Middle East and Australia around the same time. The detailed features of the cave art suggest a human origin.
Further discoveries in the same region of the island include more recent drawings of a human figure, a bird, and horse-like animals, dated to be approximately 4,000 years old.
There’s likely more art to discover on adjacent islands, possibly even older than the handprints. Future research may illuminate how these artistic traditions spread globally and their role in the fabric of early human life.
Aubert remarked, For us, this discovery is not the end of the story; it is an invitation to keep looking.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
