Very old cave art, not from Europe

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".

I will be in the Boston area

I'm going to be visiting adrian_turtle next week, and would like to see other people as well. I'm flying east on Sunday, October 12, and back to Seattle on the afternoon of Monday the 20th. Adrian and I are having dinner with my mother on Wednesday, and I will likely be doing something with Mom on Thursday before she leaves on Friday afternoon. (If that something turns out to be a museum or historical tourist sort of outing, we might be up for additional company.)

Any plans involving Adrian have to work around her tutoring schedule, but one reasonable option is for me to get together with someone for a couple of hours while she's working.

I'm screening all comments on this, in case someone wants to leave a phone number or email address that you don't want to share with the world.