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While exploring the Indonesian island of Muna, archaeologists have uncovered what they believe to be the oldest examples of cave art in the world, predating previous finds by more than 15,000 years.
Per aljazeera.com, the images found on the walls of these Indonesian caves have initially been dated as being 67,800 years old. The artists have blown pigment over the wall, using their hands as stencils to create an image behind it. The fingers look to have been elongated, adding more creativity to the small mural.
The hand paintings are particular to this area of the world, and they are what archeologist Adhi Agus Oktaviana has been searching for since 2015. Initially, he found more modern drawings of a man on a horse and a chicken. However, looking further, he discovered the much more ancient hand paintings beneath.
It was at first difficult to prove to his co-researchers that they were, in fact, hands. However, in time, they came around to the idea. He searched the cave until he found images that were, almost without a doubt, hands with elongated fingers. Now, they are puzzling over the design choice. Per the published research:
It was almost as if they were deliberately trying to transform this image of a human hand into something else – an animal claw perhaps. Clearly, they had some deeper cultural meaning, but we don't know what that was. I suspect it was something to do with these ancient peoples' complex symbolic relationship with the animal world.
They speculate that, rather than just a simple stencil of a hand, there may have been a deeper meaning to the old cave art. Perhaps they were attempting to imitate the claws of a long-lost animal. The world the artist inhabited would be completely unrecognizable to the one we live in today, and this is just a small glimpse.
Dating the art is done by taking small particles and looking at their uranium content. By using precise instruments, they can determine how the uranium has decayed over time. This kind of dating can provide the art's minimum age, at the very least.
Many samples were taken from the cave, and it was discovered that the system had been a gallery for thousands of years. Researchers found that some of the pieces had been painted up to 35,000 years after the first.
The images and stories told by the cave art give great insight into the human beings of the past, showing tales of travel, hunting, and community, all shown through ancient creativity.
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