Ancient cave painting discovered in Indonesia

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World's oldest animal painting found - 25th January 2021

The world's oldest animal cave painting has been discovered in Indonesia. The image of a wild pig dates back 45,500 years.

The ancient artist created the life sized animal with dark red ochre pigment. It measures 136cm by 54cm and appears to be part of a larger scene. However, most of the image has been lost over the years. Maxime Aubert, co-author of a report about the painting, said: "The people who made it were fully modern, they were just like us, they had all of the capacity and the tools to do any painting that they liked."

Archaeologists came across the painting in the Leang Tedongnge cave on Sulawesi, an Indonesian island. Aubert, a specialist in dating the age of objects, uncovered the age of the artwork by testing a mineral which had formed on top of the painting. The calcite deposit proved to be 45,500 years old. This makes the artwork at least that old. "But it could be much older because the dating that we're using only dates the calcite on top of it," he said.

The painting is the oldest to depict a figure that has been discovered. However, there is an older example of human-produced art. Two years ago, archaeologists discovered a hashtag-like drawing in South Africa. The drawing dates back 73,000 years.