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New analysis of rock-art sites in Indonesia has identified the earliest narrative art currently known anywhere in the world.
Research in recent years had already revealed that the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is home to some of the oldest figurative cave art on earth, including the sites of Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4, dated to 43,900 years ago, and Leang Tedongnge, dated to 45,500 years ago (CWA 106). However, these ages were obtained using a technique known as solution-based uranium-series dating. New research is exploring the potential of an alternative method called laser-ablation uranium-series imaging (LA-U-series). This approach uses a laser to take tiny samples of calcium carbonate from the layer of mineral deposits directly above the art, allowing for finer precision and producing more accurate dates. It also has the bonus of being less destructive to the art, as well as being quicker and more cost effective.
This new method was first used to re-date the rock-art panel at Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 to test its efficiency (it could not be applied at Leang Tedongnge as no samples remained after the earlier study). Excitingly, the LA-U-series imaging produced a new date of c.48,000 years ago for the Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 panel, making it at least 4,000 years older than previously thought.
Above & below: New analysis has identified the oldest known example of figurative cave art, this panel in Leang Karampuang, featuring a pig and three human-like figures.
The team then used LA-U-series imaging to date a rock-art panel from another limestone cave in the Maros-Pangkep region of South Sulawesi for the first time. The ceiling panel at Leang Karampuang was first discovered in 2017 and consists of a red-painted scene featuring a pig and three human-like figures. One of these figures is standing with their arms extended, holding a rod-like object; the second is shown with their head near the pig’s snout, also holding a stick, one end of which may be in contact with the pig’s throat; and the third is depicted upside-down with their legs splayed outwards and their arms extended, with one hand reaching towards the pig’s head. It is not clear exactly what this scene is meant to portray: it does not explicitly depict hunting activity or therianthropes (part-human/part-animal figures), but neither can be ruled out. Four samples of mineral deposits were taken from this site – from calcium carbonate deposits over the pig and each of the humanoid figures – and subjected to LA-U-series dating. Remarkably, the results indicated a minimum age of 51,200 years old. That makes the panel at Leang Karampuang the earliest known example of figurative art and visual storytelling found to date: for reference, the famous figurative art at Lascaux Cave in France has been dated to just c.17,000 years ago.
Recently published in Nature (https:// doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07541-7), this research has great significance for our understanding of human evolution, art, and storytelling, pushing these developments even further back in time. It also challenges the idea that depictions of human-like figures did not become common until towards the end of the Late Pleistocene, as well as the belief that clear narrative compositions were rare in early cave art: we now have three such examples from Sulawesi. Furthermore, researchers believe that the application of LA-U-series imaging at other sites could very possibly identify even older examples of early cave art in the future.
Text: Amy Brunskill / Images: BRIN Google Arts & Culture; A A Oktaviana, R Joannes-Boyau, B Hakim et al., Nature, 2024
