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Indonesian cave yields world's earliest confirmed cave painting
Researchers have identified a red hand stencil on Sulawesi as the oldest reliably dated cave art, pushing the record back to at least 67,800 years ago and challenging long-held views about the origins of human creativity.
Discovery details
The stencil was found in Liang Metanduno, a limestone cave on Muna, a small island off southeastern Sulawesi. The artist placed a hand against the wall and sprayed pigment around it, leaving a negative outline. After the initial stencil was made, the finger outlines were deliberately narrowed and elongated to create a claw-like shape, suggesting an early act of symbolic transformation.
Dating and significance
Analysis of mineral crusts overlaying the stencil revealed a minimum age of 67,800 years, surpassing the previous record-a contested hand stencil in Spain dated to at least 66,700 years ago. The find supports growing evidence that complex symbolic behavior emerged outside Europe and was deeply rooted in early human cultures across Southeast Asia.
"This discovery adds to the emerging view that there was no sudden awakening of creativity in Europe. Instead, artistic expression was likely innate to our species, with roots stretching back to Africa, where humans evolved."
Professor Adam Brumm, Griffith University
Broader implications for human migration
The timing of the Sulawesi art has direct implications for debates about when Homo sapiens first reached the ancient landmass of Sahul, which included present-day Australia and New Guinea. Mainstream estimates had placed the arrival around 50,000 years ago, but the new evidence suggests humans may have reached the region as early as 65,000 years ago.
Adhi Agus Oktaviana, a researcher at Indonesia's National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), noted that the artists of Sulawesi were likely part of the population that later spread to Australia. "The presence of complex art in Sulawesi at least 67,800 years ago strengthens the case for an earlier human arrival in Sahul," Oktaviana said.
Revising the narrative of human creativity
For decades, the idea of a "European big bang" dominated discussions of early human art. Spectacular cave paintings in France and Spain, dating to around 40,000 years ago, were seen as evidence of a sudden explosion of symbolic thought. However, discoveries in Sulawesi and Africa-including engraved ochre and beads from Blombos Cave, dated to 70,000-100,000 years ago-have dismantled this Eurocentric view.
Professor Maxime Aubert, another lead researcher from Griffith University, emphasized that each new find in Sulawesi pushes the timeline of sophisticated image-making further back. "We started with minimum ages of 40,000 years, matching European sites. Now, by analyzing pigments more closely, we've extended the record by at least another 28,000 years," Aubert said.
Cultural continuity and regional spread
The hand stencil on Muna is not an isolated case. Over the past decade, Indonesian researchers have uncovered hundreds of new rock art sites across Sulawesi, revealing a tradition of cave painting that spanned tens of thousands of years. At Liang Metanduno alone, younger paintings on the same panel-some as recent as 20,000 years old-show the cave was a recurring canvas for artistic expression over at least 35,000 years.
Brumm highlighted that the geographic spread of these sites-from southwestern Sulawesi to the remote island of Muna-suggests that cave art was not a localized experiment but a widespread cultural practice. "This was a deeply embedded behavior, not just a fleeting trend," he said.
Neanderthals and the uniqueness of human art
The researchers noted that even the oldest Neanderthal cave art in Spain, dated to around 64,000 years ago, lacks the same level of creative experimentation seen in the Sulawesi stencil. While some scholars contest the dating of Neanderthal art, the deliberate modification of the hand stencil in Indonesia underscores a distinct capacity for symbolic thought in Homo sapiens.
Aubert concluded that the evidence points to a much older and more widespread story of human creativity. "These findings suggest that the capacity for symbolic expression was present when humans left Africa-and possibly even earlier."
