US EditionThis 67,800-Year-Old Hand Stencil Is the World's Oldest Human-Made Art
The claw-shaped hand stencil is the oldest reliably dated rock art in the region, linking early Homo sapiens in Indonesia to migrations toward the Sahul paleocontinent.
- At least 67,800 years ago, researchers identified a claw-like red hand stencil in Liang Metanduno cave on Muna Island, attributed to Homo sapiens artists as the region's oldest reliably dated rock art.
- Sulawesi preserves some of the oldest cave expressions, including human and animal figures analyzed in a prior 2024 Nature study, and researchers say the archipelago may have acted as a stepping stone for Homo sapiens migration via island-hopping northern and southern routes.
- Analysing tiny calcite 'cave popcorn' layers, the team used laser-based uranium-thorium dating and documented red ochre hand-stencil technique with a claw-like hand style unique to Sulawesi.
- The team says the find supports the long-chronology view that ancestors of the First Australians were in Sahul by 65,000 years ago and will continue searching sites along the northern route into Sahul, underscoring Indonesian islands between Sulawesi and New Guinea as targets.
- Researchers say the dating gives the oldest direct evidence for modern humans along the northern migration corridor into Sahul and is older than hand stencils in Spain linked to Neanderthals.
23 Articles
23 Articles
Perhaps the oldest rock art ever found has been discovered on the little-studied island of Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Archaeologists Just Found The Oldest Human-Made Art Ever. Here's What We Know.
In a limestone cave on Indonesia’s Muna Island, archaeologists have found rock art that’s at least 67,800 years old. That makes it the oldest reliably dated human-made art ever discovered. It’s so old that it predates what we previously understood as the oldest evidence of human-made art ever discovered by a few thousand years. The researchers published their findings in the journal Nature. The art itself is a bit eerie. Large red blotches of pa…
A discovery that greatly serves prehistoric chronology. According to Le Monde, the light of this rock painting representing a "negative hand" in Indonesia makes it possible to decipher the journey of the human species between Eurasia and Australia. In a decade, the karst caves of Sulawesi revealed historical treasures, exceeding in seniority the largest French sites such as Lascaux (22,000 years), Cosquer (33,000 years) or Chauvet (36,000 years).
The Oldest Known Rock Art Is Over 67,000 Years Old, Offering Clues Into Our Ancient Ancestors’ Migrations
Learn more about the oldest rock art on record, a stencil of a human hand in Indonesia, which reveals important insights into the movement of humans into Australia.
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