The dating of an exceptionally old cave painting of animals that was found recently on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is reported in our recent paper.
The painting portrays images of the Sulawesi warty pig (Sus celebensis), which is a small (40kg to 85kg) short-legged wild boar endemic to the island.
Dating to at least 45,500 years ago, this cave painting may be the oldest depiction of the animal world, and possibly the earliest figurative art (an image that resembles the thing it is intended to represent), yet uncovered.
Ice age art in Indonesia
Sulawesi is host to abundant cave art, the existence of which was first reported in the 1950s.
Until recently, the prevailing view was this art was the handiwork of Neolithic farmers who arrived around 4,000 years ago from southern China rather than the hunter-gatherers who had lived on Sulawesi for tens of thousands of years.
We now know that this is not correct.
In 2014, we reported the…