Very old cave art, not from Europe

[redbird]

What may be the oldest known cave paintings have been found, in Sulawesi, Indonesia. This is definitely the oldest known hand stencil, and a painting of a babirusa may be the oldest known drawing of an animal.

So, art didn't originate only in Western Europe, as people have been assuming. Either it goes back to before our ancestors spread out from Africa, or that shift in thought happened at least twice. (The article I'm linking to assumes it happened once.)

The discovery of 40,000-year-old cave paintings at opposite ends of the globe suggests that the ability to create representational art had its origins further back in time in Africa, before modern humans spread across the rest of the world.

"That's kind of my gut feeling," says Prof Stringer. "The basis for this art was there 60,000 years ago; it may even have been there in Africa before 60,000 years ago and it spread with modern humans".

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

way way cool. thanks for the link.

[ironed_orchid]

There is cave art in Australia that is 40,000 years old, and some is estimated to be 60,000 years old.

[ironed_orchid]

Correction: After some googling to check my facts, they can't date it accurately back to 60,000 years, but it is theoretically posible it could be that old, and there is other evidence of humans living in Australia going back more than 40,000 years which we tend to round up to for convenience.

source

[redbird]

I knew people have been in Australia about that long, maybe longer (I've seen up to 60,000 B.P.). This cave art in Sulawesi is solidly/accurately dated, by the stalactites. The article notes that there are other caves in the area that have art which may be about as old, but without solid dates it's been easy to ignore them, whether out of laziness, prejudice, or desire for a simpler-seeming story. (You'll still read/hear about "the" origin of agriculture, even though we now know that it was invented more than once.)