Oldest cave art in the world discovered – and it wasn't made by humans

The oldest cave art in the world has been discovered, but scientists don’t think it was humans who did it.

Cave paintings dating back 24,000 years have previously been uncovered in Spain. But, in the grand scheme of history, they have been blown out of the water by a discovery made on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

Paintings discovered in a Sulawesi cave are now the oldest known to man, dating back 51,200 years. Their discovery raised questions about the history of human activity on the island and migration more broadly.

Advances in technology have now been able to analyse the artwork, which depicts figures including a pig, and date it more accurately, making it at least 4,040 years older than the original estimate that it was drawn 43,900 years ago.

A team of researchers led by the Indonesian archaeologist Adhi Augus Oktaviana utilised a technique called laser-ablation U-series imaging, which they said in the study is “a novel application of this approach”.

“Painted at least 51,200 years ago, this narrative composition, which depicts human-like figures interacting with a pig, is now the earliest known surviving example of representational art and visual storytelling in the world,” the authors wrote.

However, the revised dates have now thrown into question which species was responsible since most timelines accept that modern humans left Africa as far back as 90,000 years ago, at the earliest.

On Sulawesi, the earliest known modern human remains date back 25,000 years, but evidence of human activity preceding that exists in the form of rock shelters and tools made from stone.

If a species pre-dating modern humans was found to have the cognitive ability to create the artwork, it could shatter experts’ understanding of our early ancestors.

Whatever the species that created the artwork, the researchers say it demonstrates “a rich culture of storytelling developed at an early period in the long history of H. sapiens in this region — in particular, the use of scenic representation to tell visual stories about human-animal relationships”.

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