With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Oldest Cave Paintings Found? 40,000-Year-Old Indonesian ‘Stencil’ Art Is Among Earliest Of Its Kind

Ancient graffiti artists may have neglected to sign their works in the dramatic style of their 20th and 21st century New York counterparts, but the walls they decorated are no less impressive. Cave paintings on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi depict stencil-like outlines of human hands and local animals and date back to at least 39,900 years ago, making them among the oldest cave paintings in the world and broadening scientists’ understanding of where early cave artists lived, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Until now, cave art dating back around 40,000 years had only been found in Europe in the caves of France and Spain. The discovery of cave art in Sulawesi from that same period in human history means prehistoric Europe was not the only haven for cave artists. Archaeologists have called the discovery a “really important find” because it “enables us to get away from this Euro-centric view of a creative explosion that was special to Europe,” Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London told the BBC.


Read entire article at International Business Times