Indonesia: At the Origins of Human Art, 67 800 Years Ago

A major discovery in Indonesia has led to the identification of the oldest known example of rock art to date, estimated to be at least 67,800 years old.

In a cave located on the tropical island of Muna, southeast of Sulawesi, hand stencils created with red ochre have been uncovered. One of them features a deliberately modified finger resembling an animal claw, suggesting an exceptionally early form of symbolic and creative intention.

Thanks to a cutting-edge dating technique based on the analysis of mineral deposits formed on the rock surface, these handprints could be dated with remarkable precision. They are significantly older than any previously known rock art in either Asia or Europe and attest to an artistic tradition that endured in the region for tens of thousands of years.

Beyond their extraordinary age, these paintings provide key insights into the cognitive abilities of early modern humans in Southeast Asia. The deliberate transformation of a human hand into an animal-like motif reveals abstract, imaginative, and symbolic thinking, challenging long-standing Eurocentric views of the emergence of human intelligence.

These works also offer valuable clues for understanding major prehistoric migrations. They suggest that populations living in the Indonesian archipelago already possessed the technical, social, and cognitive skills required to undertake complex maritime journeys. Rock art from this region may therefore be connected to the earliest human settlement of Australia, reached around 65,000 years ago by groups moving island to island across Southeast Asia.

In the absence of ancient human remains in this area, these paintings now stand as some of the most direct and intimate evidence of human presence, imagination, and the capacity to explore new worlds at a very early point in human history.

source : www.nationalgeographic.fr/sciences/archeologie-anthropologie-decouverte-de-la-plus-ancienne-oeuvre-art-rupestre-du-monde-en-indonesie