World's oldest artwork discovered in Indonesia cave

The discovery, made by a team of Australian and Indonesian researchers, pushes back the known date (45,000) of the earliest figurative art by more than 5,000 years.

The painting was found in the limestone cave of Leang Karampuang in the Maros-Pangkep region of South Sulawesi and portrays a narrative scene: a pig stands still with its mouth partly open, surrounded by figures that appear to be interacting with it.

This discovery challenges the long-held belief that the creative explosion that led to the development of art and science began in Europe. Instead, it suggests that art and storytelling have been a part of human culture for tens of thousands of years and that they likely originated in Africa before spreading to other parts of the world.

"This find reinforces the idea that representational art was first produced in Africa, before 50,000 years ago, and the concept spread as our species spread. If that is true, much new supporting evidence from other areas including Africa has yet to emerge,” said Chris Stringer, an anthropologist at London's Natural History Museum.

“This discovery of very old cave art in Indonesia drives home the point that Europe was not the birthplace of cave art, as had long been assumed. It also suggests that storytelling was a much older part of human history, and the history of art, in particular, than previously recognized,” Griffith University archaeologist Adam Brumm, another of the study’s authors supported.

According to Maxime Aubert, an archaeologist at Australia's Griffith University, the unearthing of the artwork is also significant because it provides evidence of the mental capacity of early humans. Adding that the painting shows a level of sophistication and creativity that was previously unknown in art of this age.

"The earliest Sulawesi rock art is not 'simple'. It is quite advanced and shows the mental capacity of people at the time," Aubert said.