44,000-year-old rock painting discovered in a cave – The oldest hunting scene in the world
A rock art that is at least 43,900 years old, which is the oldest hunting scene in the world, was discovered in a cave in Indonesia by Australian and Indonesian scientists.
The scientists found rock paintings in a limestone cave on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island. These depict eight small human figures, some with animal features, hunting two wild boars and four small buffalo using spears or long ropes. The researchers, led by archaeology professor Maxime Aubert of Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, published these findings in the journal Nature. They stated that the hunting scene in Leang Bulu Sipong Cave 4, discovered in 2017, stretches about 4.5 metres long and is monochrome in a deep red hue.
Human figures and animals are painted together using the same style and technique. The human faces display animal features (zoo-men or beastmen). The bodies are human, but the heads or other body parts belong to animals (birds, reptiles, etc.). This depiction likely refers to primitive religious beliefs about the relationship between humans and animals. According to researchers, this could be the earliest evidence of our ancestors’ ability to imagine the existence of supernatural beings, a foundation for the subsequent development of religion.
The prevailing theory is that the first rock paintings appeared in Europe and initially contained abstract symbols. About 35,000 years ago, this simple art form had evolved into more complex forms. Between 21,000 and 14,000 years ago, cave art in Europe during the Upper Palaeolithic Period began to include the earliest known depictions of humans and animals together in recognizable hunting scenes. It also included depictions of abstract beings that combined animal and human features, possibly in the context of storytelling.
However, according to Aubert, “the cave paintings at Leang Bulu Sipong 4 indicate that there was no gradual evolution of Palaeolithic art from the simplest to the most complex forms some 35,000 years ago, at least not in Southeast Asia. All the basic components of a highly sophisticated artistic culture were present in Sulawesi 44,000 years ago, including representational art, scenes and beastmen.”
The researchers added that, considering the discovery of similar rock art dating back at least 40,000 years old on the island of Borneo (announced in 2018), Indonesia is emerging as one of the most important places on Earth for understanding the origins of cave art and the evolution of the human mind.
“The depictions of beastmen at Leang Bulu Sipong 4 could be the earliest evidence of our capacity to imagine entities that don’t exist in the physical realm, a fundamental aspect of modern religion,” stated Associate Professor Adam Brumm of Griffith University.
“Beings that are part human, part animal are present in the folklore and narratives of nearly every contemporary society,” he added. “In many global religions, they are viewed as gods, spirits, or ancestral creatures. Sulawesi now holds the record for the oldest image of this kind, predating the lion-headed man of Germany, previously considered the oldest beastman depiction at 40,000 years old.”
Australian researchers have unearthed several new caves in southern Sulawesi, specifically in the Maros-Pangep region, that contain remarkable yet undated rock art. They have raised concerns about the increasing deterioration of almost all these artworks, as the rock surfaces bearing the paintings continue to erode.
Information sourced from APM