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      Pleistocene cave art from Sulawesi, Indonesia.

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          Abstract

          Archaeologists have long been puzzled by the appearance in Europe ∼40-35 thousand years (kyr) ago of a rich corpus of sophisticated artworks, including parietal art (that is, paintings, drawings and engravings on immobile rock surfaces) and portable art (for example, carved figurines), and the absence or scarcity of equivalent, well-dated evidence elsewhere, especially along early human migration routes in South Asia and the Far East, including Wallacea and Australia, where modern humans (Homo sapiens) were established by 50 kyr ago. Here, using uranium-series dating of coralloid speleothems directly associated with 12 human hand stencils and two figurative animal depictions from seven cave sites in the Maros karsts of Sulawesi, we show that rock art traditions on this Indonesian island are at least compatible in age with the oldest European art. The earliest dated image from Maros, with a minimum age of 39.9 kyr, is now the oldest known hand stencil in the world. In addition, a painting of a babirusa ('pig-deer') made at least 35.4 kyr ago is among the earliest dated figurative depictions worldwide, if not the earliest one. Among the implications, it can now be demonstrated that humans were producing rock art by ∼40 kyr ago at opposite ends of the Pleistocene Eurasian world.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          Nature
          Nature
          1476-4687
          0028-0836
          Oct 9 2014
          : 514
          : 7521
          Affiliations
          [1 ] 1] Centre for Archaeological Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia [2] Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit (PERAHU), Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland 4222, Australia [3].
          [2 ] 1] Centre for Archaeological Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia [2] Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland 4111, Australia. [3].
          [3 ] Balai Pelestarian Peninggalan Purbakala, Makassar 90111, Indonesia.
          [4 ] 1] Centre for Archaeological Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia [2] National Centre for Archaeology (ARKENAS), Jakarta 12001, Indonesia.
          [5 ] National Centre for Archaeology (ARKENAS), Jakarta 12001, Indonesia.
          [6 ] Balai Arkeologi Makassar, Makassar 90242, Indonesia.
          [7 ] Centre for Archaeological Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia.
          [8 ] Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia.
          [9 ] 1] Wollongong Isotope Geochronology Laboratory, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia [2] GeoQuEST Research Centre, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia.
          Article
          nature13422
          10.1038/nature13422
          25297435
          9b199856-c2f2-42fa-8264-8a0e06cd7cb4
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