Dating back 44,000 years, earliest known cave art by humans found in Indonesia

Archaeologists recently uncovered the earliest known cave art made by modern human beings in Indonesia. According to reports, the cave wall paintings of human-like hunters and mammals are said to be about 44,000-years-old. The painting was discovered in the year 2017 and is among the hundreds of paintings in South Sulawesi alongside a painting made in red colour dated to be 40,000-years-old, as per reports.

It is said that the latest artwork to be found is said to be twice as old in relation to the paintings found earlier. The latest findings give a glimpse about how human beings used their imagination to create such paintings. The cave art that was found, showed that panel with a width of 4.5 metres that had six mammals on it such as two Sulawesi pigs alongside four dwarf buffaloes (found to this day in the Island's forests).

The painting shows that these animals seem to be fleeing as hunters with human and animal-like features pursue them with swords or ropes in their hands. It is said that the hunters mentioned in the above line seem to have ahead of a bord whereas another seems to have a tail. Human-animal hybrids have appeared in folktales in different parts of the world and are commonly referred to as gods, spirits or godly beings in religions across the world.

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Cave popcorn

Analysing and measuring the radioactive decay of uranium in mineral growths on the artwork gave archaeologists results that the cave art was approximately 44,000 years old. According to reports, the cave in which the artwork was found, is a well-explored system and it is said that the artwork was found after a person belonging to an expedition team discovered an entrance to a chamber at a high level. Dating of rock painting is a difficult procedure and archaeologists are dependent on studying mineral growths in caves also called cave popcorn that tend to form over these rock paintings.

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