Cave art may be much older than thought

Several cave paintings in Indonesia have been found to be much older than expected — casting doubt on what we thought we knew about the origins of art. The paintings, located on Sulawesi island in Indonesia several decades ago, may be over 40,000 years old, according to recent dating. That makes them at least as old as (and perhaps even older than) any cave art ever found, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Nature.

The location is what makes these paintings special: Scientists have found lots of cave paintings and carvings of this age, but only in Europe. These works of art — 12 human hand stencils and two animal depictions spread throughout seven caves — represent the first solid evidence that art existed in other places around the world during those early days.

“It was previously thought that western Europe was the centerpiece of a ‘symbolic explosion’ in early human artistic activity, such as cave painting and other forms of image making, around 40,000 years ago,” corresponding author and University of Griffith researcher Maxime Aubert said. But the research by him and his colleagues suggests that the same creativity existed across the globe at the same time.

In fact, he said, they believe that art probably came during the age of common ancestors. People were carving geometric patterns into stones in Africa 50,000 years ago, he said, so it’s possible that the leap from scratched patterns to cave painting came before humans dispersed to Europe and Asia.

But we can’t know this for sure, as it’s also possible that art emerged independently in different places at the same time. The researchers say they’d need more data to make a conclusion.

There are plenty of other caves across Asia waiting to have their art dated, so it’s possible that future paintings will prove to be as old as these. A big question is whether humans were really the first to make art, co-author and University of Wollongong researcher Adam Brumm said, or if Neanderthals were creative, as well.

“Archaeologists love to say things like ‘ability X is what makes us human,’ but in the case of the origins of art, they are probably right,” Brumm said, “For some reason, only we do art. And one of the biggest questions facing archaeologists is determining when this ability arose in our lineage.”