The world’s oldest known example of cave art, dating back at least 67,800 years, has been discovered by researchers studying handprints in Indonesia.The find, along with others recently made in the Southeast Asian nation, helps scientists trying to determine when and where early humans first learned to make art, and at what point their art became more complex.The reddish hand stencils, though faded and barely visible, were found inside the Liang Metanduno limestone cave on Muna, an island off the larger eastern Indonesian island of Sulawesi. One of them was found to be at least 67,800 years old.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIndonesian and Australian researchers said the stencils were made by blowing pigment onto a hand pressed against the rock surface, leaving an outline. Fingertips reshaped to appear more pointed suggest that the hands belonged to humans, possibly connected to the ancestors of the first Australians.The paintings were dated by analyzing mineral crusts that had gradually formed on top of them.The finding “is pretty extraordinary, because usually rock art is very difficult to date, and it doesn’t date back to anywhere near that old,” said Adam Brumm, a professor of archaeology at Griffith University in Brisbane and a co-author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.Indonesian scientists Adhi Agus Oktaviana, left, and Shinatria Adhityatama studying handprints on the walls of the cave. (Maxime Aubert via AP)(Maxime Aubert via AP)The hand stencil is more than 15,000 years older than a painting in another cave on Sulawesi that the same team dated in 2024. That painting, which depicted three human-like figures interacting with a pig, is thought to be about 51,200 years old.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I thought we were doing pretty well then, but this one image just completely blew that other one away,” Brumm said.“It really just shows how long people have been making rock art in that part of the world,” he said. “It’s a very long time.”Researchers hope to find even older art, including storytelling art, in and around Indonesia, much of which remains archaeologically unexplored, he added.Liang Metanduno is a well-known site for cave art that is open to tourists. But most of the art found so far is paintings depicting chickens and other domesticated animals that are thought to be much more recent, about 4,000 years old.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn 2015, Indonesian rock art specialist …
