At a Glance
- A hand stencil in an Indonesian cave has been dated to at least 67,800 years old, making it potentially the oldest rock art on record
- The artwork is about 1,100 years older than a similar Neanderthal-made stencil in Spain
- Researchers used calcite deposits above the pigment to determine the minimum age
- Why it matters: The finding could shift archaeological focus from Europe to Southeast Asia as the cradle of early symbolic thought
Researchers on the Indonesian island of Muna have uncovered what may be the earliest known cave art-a human hand stencil at least 67,800 years old. Published today in Nature, the study pushes back the timeline for symbolic expression and adds weight to the theory that humans reached Sahul, the prehistoric continent that included Australia and New Guinea, earlier than once thought.
Oldest Stencil Predates European Examples
The limestone cave on Muna, just off Sulawesi, preserves a hand silhouette modified to emphasize claw-like fingers. By dating the thin curtain of calcite that formed over the pigment, a team led by Griffith University’s Maxime Aubert established 67,800 years as the artwork’s minimum age. That edges out a Neanderthal hand stencil from Spain’s Maltravieso Cave by roughly 1,100 years.
If the result stands, Indonesia-not France or Spain-hosts the oldest reliably dated cave art yet found. The claim is already stirring debate. British prehistorian Paul Bahn cautions that minimum ages only tell when the calcite formed, not when the paint was applied. “The stencil could have been made just a few years before that, or several millennia before,” he told News Of Austin. Comparing minimum dates, he argues, is “meaningless” until true ages are pinned down.
A 35,000-Year Artistic Tradition
The Muna stencil is only the earliest layer in a long creative sequence. Archaeologists documented continuous cave use for art-making from at least 35,000 years ago to around 20,000 years ago, yielding hand stencils, animal figures, and a human outline. Across Southeast Sulawesi, similar panels abound, suggesting a deep-rooted regional tradition.
“It is now evident … that Sulawesi was home to one of the world’s richest and most longstanding artistic cultures,” said Aubert, whose team surveyed dozens of sites. Co-author Adhi Agus Oktaviana, a rock-art specialist at Indonesia’s BRIN agency, adds that the motifs strongly parallel early Australian Aboriginal imagery, hinting at shared ancestry among the first people to enter Sahul.
Migration Clues for First Australians
The 67,800-year date dovetails with the “long chronology” model, which places humans in Sahul by at least 65,000 years ago, rather than the shorter 50,000-year window preferred by some researchers. Renaud Joannes-Boyau of Southern Cross University calls the stencil the “oldest direct evidence” of Homo sapiens moving along the northern island chain toward New Guinea.
Kira Westaway of Macquarie University, not involved in the study, underscores the broader payoff: “Rock art is the closest evidence we have to understand our ancestors, but this understanding is limited by the difficulty in dating the art-so this type of systematic research … is vital.”
Skeptics Call for More Data
While the result is grabbing headlines, specialists urge caution. Siyakha Mguni of the University of Cape Town says independent confirmation is essential. Yet if the age holds, “the discovery carries enormous implications … that will bring about a shift of attention away from southwestern Europe,” he told News Of Austin. “Locating a new centre in Eurasia is indeed a radical shift!”
For now, the Muna handprint remains a minimum age, not an exact one. Still, its mere existence pushes the origin of symbolic behavior deeper into time-and thousands of kilometers east of the caves that once defined the story of Ice Age art.
Key Takeaways
- Minimum age of 67,800 years makes the Muna stencil the current record-holder for oldest cave art
- Continuous artistic activity in the cave spans 35,000-20,000 years ago
- Result supports early human arrival in Sahul 65,000+ years ago
- Dating method relies on overlying calcite, leaving room for older pigment underneath
- Confirmation could recenter Ice Age art studies from Europe to Southeast Asia
