44,000-Year-Old Indonesian Cave Painting Is Rewriting The History Of Art

"Scientists say they have found the oldest known figurative painting, in a cave in Indonesia. And the stunning scene of a hunting party, painted some 44,000 years ago, is helping to rewrite the history of the origins of art."

"Until recently, the long-held story was that humans started painting in caves in Europe. For example, art from the Chauvet Cave in France is dated as old as 37,000 years."

"But several years ago, a group of scientists started dating cave paintings in Indonesia — and found that they are thousands of years older."

"'They are at least 40,000 years old, which was a very, very surprising discovery,' says Adam Brumm, an archaeologist at Australia's Griffith University. He and his colleagues used a technique called uranium-series analysis to determine the paintings' age. The oldest figurative painting in those analyses was a striking image of a wild cow."

"These works had been known for years by locals on the island of Sulawesi — but Brumm adds that 'it was assumed they couldn't be that old.'"

"Since that big reveal, Brumm's team — which he led with archaeologists Maxime Aubert and Adhi Agus Oktaviana — has been searching for more art in these caves. In 2017, they found something breathtaking — the massive hunting scene, stretching across about 16 feet of a cave wall. And after testing it, they say it's the oldest known figurative art attributed to early modern humans. They published their findings in the journal Nature."