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Earliest hunting scene in prehistoric art
Maxime Aubert1,2, Rustan Lebe3, Adhi Agus Oktaviana1,4
1Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit (PERAHU), Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
Nature
|December 13, 2019
Summary
The oldest known figurative artwork and storytelling scene, depicting therianthropes hunting, has been discovered in an Indonesian cave. Dated to at least 43,900 years ago, this ancient art predates previous discoveries by millennia.
Area of Science:
- Archaeology
- Paleoanthropology
- Art History
Background:
- Humans possess an innate inclination for storytelling, with prehistoric cave art offering insights into early narrative expressions.
- Upper Palaeolithic European cave art, featuring scenes and therianthropes, represents some of the oldest known figurative storytelling (dating back to approximately 40,000 years ago).
Observation:
- An elaborate rock art panel was discovered in Leang Bulu' Sipong 4 cave, Sulawesi, Indonesia.
- The panel depicts therianthropes (part-human, part-animal figures) engaged in a hunting scene, featuring wild pigs and dwarf bovids.
Findings:
- The cave art panel has been dated to at least 43,900 years ago using uranium-series analysis of overlying speleothems.
- This discovery represents the world's oldest known pictorial record of storytelling and the earliest example of figurative artwork.
Implications:
- This finding pushes back the timeline for sophisticated narrative art and symbolic communication in early human history.
- It suggests that complex storytelling and artistic expression were present in Southeast Asia much earlier than previously understood.
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