The Worlds Oldest Cave Painting Made More Than 45,500 Years Ago

A cave painting of a pig discovered in a karst cave on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia has been recognized as the world’s oldest animal drawing. According to Science Advances, uranium-thorium dating allowed scientists to find out that the drawing was created 45,500 years ago.

The new oldest drawing of the animal was found in the Indonesian karst cave of Leang Tedongnge, in the southwest of Sulawesi. Scientists have known about the existence of this cave since the middle of the twentieth century but new impressive finds are made here regularly.

In 2017, four drawings were found here depicting Sulawesi warty pig – endemic animals of the island. One of the drawings has survived well, while the rest have almost completely disappeared over the tens of thousands of years.

Now, I need to mention that these are not the oldest examples of cave art but these are the oldest known depictions of animals. The oldest actual examples of patterns were found in South Africa in 2011 and presented by patterns of ocher lines dated to more than 73,000 years ago.

The previous oldest examples of cave paintings were once again found in one of the caves near Sulawesi and were dated to approximately 43,900 years ago. Now, scientists reported the intricate dating of an even older cave painting. Read the free article.