title: Pleistocene cave art from Sulawesi, Indonesia.
abstract: Archaeologists have long been puzzled by the appearance in Europe ∼40-35 thousand years (kyr) ago of a rich corpus of sophisticated artworks, including parietal art (that is, paintings, drawings and engravings on immobile rock surfaces) and portable art (for example, carved figurines), and the absence or scarcity of equivalent, well-dated evidence elsewhere, especially along early human migration routes in South Asia and the Far East, including Wallacea and Australia, where modern humans (Homo sapiens) were established by 50 kyr ago. Here, using uranium-series dating of coralloid speleothems directly associated with 12 human hand stencils and two figurative animal depictions from seven cave sites in the Maros karsts of Sulawesi, we show that rock art traditions on this Indonesian island are at least compatible in age with the oldest European art. The earliest dated image from Maros, with a minimum age of 39.9 kyr, is now the oldest known hand stencil in the world. In addition, a painting of a babirusa ('pig-deer') made at least 35.4 kyr ago is among the earliest dated figurative depictions worldwide, if not the earliest one. Among the implications, it can now be demonstrated that humans were producing rock art by ∼40 kyr ago at opposite ends of the Pleistocene Eurasian world.
authors.affiliation: 1] Centre for Archaeological Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia [2] Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit (PERAHU), Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland 4222, Australia [3].
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aubert
authors.affiliation: 1] Centre for Archaeological Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia [2] Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland 4111, Australia. [3].
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brumm
authors.affiliation: Balai Pelestarian Peninggalan Purbakala, Makassar 90111, Indonesia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramli
authors.affiliation: 1] Centre for Archaeological Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia [2] National Centre for Archaeology (ARKENAS), Jakarta 12001, Indonesia.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sutikna
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Archaeology (ARKENAS), Jakarta 12001, Indonesia.
authors.forename: E W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Saptomo
authors.affiliation: Balai Arkeologi Makassar, Makassar 90242, Indonesia.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hakim
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Morwood
authors.affiliation: Centre for Archaeological Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia.
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: van den Bergh
authors.affiliation: Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kinsley
authors.affiliation: 1] Wollongong Isotope Geochronology Laboratory, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia [2] GeoQuEST Research Centre, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dosseto
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001154:Art / Q000266:history*; D059552:Caves; D003670:Deer; D049690:History, Ancient; D006802:Human Activities / Q000266:history; D007214:Indonesia; D013552:Swine; D014501:Uranium
chemical_list: D014501:Uranium