44,000 year old cave paintings

December 18, 2019

The oldest form of communication that reaches us from ancient man comes from artists.  The oldest drawing, found on a rock in South Africa last year, is some 73,000 years old.  In Germany there is a 40,000-year-old sculpture of a human with lion’s head.  In France, a 14,000- to 21,000-year old mural depicts a figure fighting a bison, with the faces sporting a beak.

A new discovery extends narrative cave painting back 44,000 years.  In caves on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, archaeologists discovered a painting of a hunt or ritual.  There are two wild pigs and four dwarf buffaloes chased by  mythical human-animal figures hunting with rope- and spear-like weapons.  They are not just individual pieces as in older discoveries but tell a story.   If the age of the paintings is confirmed independently, these become the oldest known narrative cave paintings. 

 

Screenshot from 2019-12-17 09:17:46

 

 

Screenshot from 2019-12-17 09:16:20

 

 

Screenshot from 2019-12-17 08:20:50

 

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[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs6DVTSOEOw[/embedyt]

For further reading, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/newly-discovered-indonesian-cave-art-may-represent-worlds-oldest-known-hunting-scene-180973761/

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/cave-painting-indonesia-sulawesi-age-archaeologists-griffith-university-a9243331.html

 

Screenshot from 2019-12-17 09:17:46
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