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It may not look like much – just a peeling image of three people around a big red pig.
However, new research revealed that the cave painting discovered in Indonesia is the oldest known narrative artwork made by human hands. It dates back more than 51,000 years.
“This is the oldest evidence of storytelling,” said Maxime Aubert, an archaeologist at Australia’s Griffith University.
Aubert was part of the team that identified the previous record holder in 2019, a hunting scene found in a nearby Indonesian cave then estimated to be nearly 44,000 years old.
The latest discovery marks “the first time we’ve passed the 50,000-year barrier,” said Aubert.
He added that the fact that early humans were able to tell such a “sophisticated” story through art could rewrite our understanding of human cognitive evolution.
