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View all search resultsWorld’s ‘oldest’ rock art discovered in Southeast Sulawesi
The latest rock art found on Muna Island in Southeast Sulawesi, a faded hand stencil made out of ocher that may be made at least 67,800 years ago, might provide more clues for archaeologists about how ancient human migrated through Sulawesi to Australia.
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A faded hand stencil, located between the painting of a human riding a horse and a chicken, dated at least 67,800 years old at the Liang Metanduno cave on Muna Island, Southeast Sulawesi is seen in this photo taken in May 2019. (Handout/Courtey of Maxime Aubert)
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ulawesi, the fourth largest island in the country and the 11th largest in the world, made headlines in 2024 thanks to the world’s oldest-known dated cave painting of a wild pig in Maros Pangkep area in South Sulawesi believed to be made around 51,200 years ago.
But researchers recently found that another cave painting found on Muna Island in Southeast Sulawesi, around 300 kilometers from the 2024 discovered painting, might be made even earlier, at least 67,800 years ago.
The latest painting, a hand stencil found at the Liang Metanduno cave, is one of dozens of rock arts found across Muna Island and neighboring Buton Island in Southeast Sulawesi.
Archaeologist Adhi Agus Oktaviana from the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), an author of the study of the Muna rock arts published in Nature on Wednesday, has been exploring Muna since 2015 to look for hand stencils possibly made by ancient humans in the island’s caves.
Adhi later found some hand stencils, including one in Metanduno which was relatively hidden under newer paintings, of a person riding a horse alongside a chicken.
The stencil was in a “poor state of conservation”, the researchers noted, with the pigment having faded. Nevertheless, it still showed a portion of the fingers and the adjoining palm area.
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