Narrative cave art in Indonesia by 51,200 years ago

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 631; no. 8022; pp. 814 - 818
• Main Authors: Oktaviana, Adhi Agus, Joannes-Boyau, Renaud, Hakim, Budianto, Burhan, Basran, Sardi, Ratno, Adhityatama, Shinatria, Hamrullah, Sumantri, Iwan, Tang, M., Lebe, Rustan, Ilyas, Imran, Abbas, Abdullah, Jusdi, Andi, Mahardian, Dewangga Eka, Noerwidi, Sofwan, Ririmasse, Marlon N. R., Mahmud, Irfan, Duli, Akin, Aksa, Laode M., McGahan, David, Setiawan, Pindi, Brumm, Adam, Aubert, Maxime
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 25-07-2024; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/181/1403; 631/181/27; Ablation; Age; Calcite; Cave art; Caves; Humanities and Social Sciences; Karst; Laser ablation; Lasers; Limestone; Methods; multidisciplinary; Narratives; Petroglyphs; Rocks; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Uranium; Sulawesi; Indonesia
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07541-7

Previous dating research indicated that the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is host to some of the oldest known rock art
1
–
3
. That work was based on solution uranium-series (U-series) analysis of calcite deposits overlying rock art in the limestone caves of Maros-Pangkep, South Sulawesi
1
–
3
. Here we use a novel application of this approach—laser-ablation U-series imaging—to re-date some of the earliest cave art in this karst area and to determine the age of stylistically similar motifs at other Maros-Pangkep sites. This method provides enhanced spatial accuracy, resulting in older minimum ages for previously dated art. We show that a hunting scene from Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4, which was originally dated using the previous approach to a minimum of 43,900 thousand years ago (ka)
3
, has a minimum age of 50.2 ± 2.2 ka, and so is at least 4,040 years older than thought. Using the imaging approach, we also assign a minimum age of 53.5 ± 2.3 ka to a newly described cave art scene at Leang Karampuang. Painted at least 51,200 years ago, this narrative composition, which depicts human-like figures interacting with a pig, is now the earliest known surviving example of representational art, and visual storytelling, in the world
3
. Our findings show that figurative portrayals of anthropomorphic figures and animals have a deeper origin in the history of modern human (
Homo sapiens
) image-making than recognized to date, as does their representation in composed scenes.
A cave art scene at Leang Karampuang, Indonesia, dated to at least 51,200 years ago using laser-ablation uranium-series imaging, depicts human-like figures interacting with a pig.