A cave painting on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi may be the oldest evidence of narrative art ever discovered, researchers say. The artwork, which depicts a human-like figure interacting with a warty pig, suggests people may have been using art as a way of telling stories for much longer than we thought.
The archaeologists previously dated the panel rock art and found it to be at least 43,900 years old, while the oldest image they found in the area was of a 45,500-year-old warty pig. By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over."Archaeologists are very interested in depictions of therianthrope because it provides evidence for the ability to imagine the existence of a supernatural being, something that does not exist in real life," Brumm said.
The early evidence of a therianthrope is a sign of complex human cognition, Hodgson told Live Science."You don't find any of these Neanderthals or early pre-human archaic species producing complex figurative art." But in the new study, Brumm and his team used even smaller calcite samples — just 0.002 inches long. By taking much smaller samples, the archaeologists gain a higher resolution of the age distribution of the calcite on the cave walls. The technique also minimizes the damage made to the artwork.