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World’s earliest animal painting uncovered - 25th January 2021

In Indonesia, archaeologists have stumbled upon the world's earliest known cave painting of an animal. The depiction of a wild pig is believed to have been drawn 45,500 years ago.

Painted using dark red ochre pigment, the picture stretches 136cm across and is 54cm tall. This life sized representation of a male Sulawesi warty pig was likely once part of a narrative scene. The hog is facing two other pigs which are only partially preserved. Two ochre handprints are also visible above the back of the pig.

Maxime Aubert dated the ancient artwork and co-authored a report on it. "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," he explained.

After the discovery of the image in the Leang Tedongnge cave in a remote valley on the island of Sulawesi, Aubert identified a calcite deposit which had developed on the surface of the artwork. Using uranium-series isotope dating, he determined that the deposit dates back 45,500 years. The artwork may have been created then, but, as Aubert points out, "it could be much older because the dating that we're using only dates the calcite on top of it."

Although no earlier piece of art depicting a figure has yet been discovered, there are examples of abstract human art which predate the painted boar. In 2018, a doodle resembling a hashtag came to light in South Africa. Created 73,000 years ago, it is believed to be the earliest drawing in history.