Indonesia’s 68,000-year-old handprint: the birth of human art?

The faint outline of a hand in a cave in Indonesia’s Sulawesi has been recognised as the world’s oldest known rock art, shattering a long-held scientific theory that human artistic expression first flourished in Ice Age Europe. Dating back at least 67,800 years, the faded stencil was found hiding beneath a more recent chicken sketch in Metanduno cave on Muna Island. Researchers say the finding, which was published in the scientific journal Nature on January 21, proves that ancient humans in Southeast Asia were already capable of reflecting on their existence and leaving intentional marks of meaning behind. Dr Adhi Agus Oktaviana, a rock art specialist from Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), first spotted the hand stencil in 2015, its faint traces nearly obscured. Four years later, he collected a sample that scientists at Griffith University in Australia subsequently determined predated all previously known rock paintings by at least 15,000 years. “Why a handprint? It was easier to make, and it signifies ‘I was here’,” Adhi told This Week in Asia, surmising that the imprint of hand, deliberately reshaped to give it claw-like fingers, might symbolise “a connection between humans and animals”. Professor Maxime Aubert, an archaeologist at Griffith University who co-led the study, said the discovery reinforced Sulawesi’s standing as one of the cradles of artistic innovation. The uniquely K-shaped island east of Borneo is the location of numerous other rock paintings dating back tens of thousands of years. “It is now evident from our new phase of research that Sulawesi was home to one of the world’s richest and most long-standing artistic cultures, one with origins in the earliest history of human occupation of the island at least 67,800 years ago,” Aubert said. ‘Cognitive explosion’ The Metanduno find joins a growing gallery of prehistoric masterpieces across Sulawesi. In 2017, the same Indonesian-Australian research team uncovered a mural in South Sulawesi’s Leang Karampuang cave dated to at least 51,200 years ago, depicting three humanlike figures interacting with a wild pig, making it the second-oldest known cave painting on Earth. Another seminal find came in Bulu Sipong 4 cave a few years earlier, when the team identified the world’s oldest storytelling scene, a 4.5-metre (14.7-foot) tableau showing hunters armed with spears and bows chasing pigs and dwarf buffalo. Dated to around 48,000 years ago, the work captured a level of composition and imagination once thought unique to Europe’s Paleolithic tradition. Adhi said such revelations had upended previously Eurocentric views about where art and symbolic cognition began. “The paradigm that art started in Europe lasted for a long time, until 2014,” he said, referring to the year that a hand stencil and warty pig image were discovered in Sulawesi’s Tedongnge cave, since dated to at least 45,500 years ago. All of the world’s oldest rock paintings had since been discovered in Indonesia, Adhi said. The findings reinforce the theory that indigenous Australians reached the supercontinent of Sahul – encompassing Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania – around 65,000 years ago. Sulawesi, within the region known as Wallacea that separated Asia’s Sunda shelf from Sahul, was never connected to either land mass, meaning the first settlers must have crossed open seas using some form of watercraft. Archaeologist Basran Burhan of Griffith University said the Metanduno stencil was evidence of “an early cognitive explosion” showing that humans were already thinking symbolically. “That humans were already capable of creating handprints 68,000 years ago is extraordinary,” he said. “It is a clear symbol of the level of human creativity at that time.” It is a clear symbol of the level of human creativity at that time Basran Burhan, archaeologist Contrary to old assumptions that prehistoric people were driven only by survival, Basran said they were also capable of self-adornment and aesthetic reflection. “We discovered jewellery made from cuscus [a small nocturnal marsupial] fingers, beads made from boar tusks. We found a pendant in Maros-Pangkep dated around 29,000 years old,” he said. “We used to assume that humans 50,000-60,000 years ago only thought about how to eat. It turns out they didn’t. They also thought about art and how to beautify themselves.” Race against time Today, Sulawesi’s rock paintings are imperilled by climate change and human activity, which threaten to erase them faster than they can be studied. Adhi estimates there are more than 700 rock-art sites exist across Indonesia, from Sumatra to Papua – but only four, including Sulawesi’s Bulu Sipong 4 and Tedongnge, have national heritage protection. “Rock paintings are relatively vulnerable to climate-induced peeling or exfoliation,” he said. “A recent study also showed that sulphur accelerates the destruction of several rock paintings at the Maros-Pangkep site.” Industrial activity poses an even greater threat. The Leang Jarie site, home to a collection of irreplaceable murals, lies perilously close to a cement factory where daily blasting reverberates through the stone. In response, researchers have begun digitally preserving the ancient murals using 3D laser scanning. So far, around 50 caves have been mapped, just a fraction of the known sites. “We still have a lot of projects to do,” Adhi said. Preservation efforts are constrained by limited funding. The BRIN team’s field workers receive a daily allowance of just 80,000 rupiah (US$4.76), far below local labour rates in remote regions. Occasional support comes from collaborators such as the Ministry of Culture, Google Arts & Culture and Griffith University, which offer more flexible budgets. Indonesia’s Culture Minister Fadli Zon announced in late January that his office would coordinate with the Southeast Sulawesi Cultural Preservation Centre to upgrade the Metanduno site’s heritage status and secure its protection. As for whether an even older rock painting lies hidden somewhere in Sulawesi, Adhi says he “can’t say for sure”. “But there are samples in South Sulawesi that haven’t been analysed yet,” he said. “It could be.”

Indonesia’s 68,000-year-old handprint: the birth of human art?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Found hiding beneath a chicken sketch, the faded outline proves ancient humans were capable of reflecting on their existence, scientists say

Found hiding beneath a chicken sketch, the faded outline proves ancient humans were capable of reflecting on their existence, scientists say