Back in 2021 (February 13) I published a column titled ‘A New Candidate for the Oldest Pictograph – the Sulewesi Pig.’ This was based on reports of newly dated painted images found in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Now, another cave on Sulawesi has provided an even older painted figure as well as re-dating the one previously reported on. Researchers used a brand new dating technique to re-date the previously reported figure as well as date the newly discovered image to an even older period.
The paper
reporting on these new discoveries was produced by a large team of 23 authors.
It describes in detail the new dating technique as well as the remarkable
results achieved in dating these paintings.
“Previous dating research indicated that the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is host to some of the oldest known rock art. That work was based on solution uranium-series (U-series) analysis of calcite deposits overlying rock art in the limestone caves of Maros-Pangkep, South Sulawesi. Here we use a novel application of this approach—laser-ablation U-series imaging—to re-date some of the earliest cave art in this karst area and to determine the age of stylistically similar motifs at other Maros-Pangkep sites. This method provides enhanced spatial accuracy, resulting in older minimum ages for previously dated art. We show that a hunting scene from Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4, which was originally dated using the previous approach to a minimum of 43,900 thousand years ago (ka)3, has a minimum age of 50.2 ± 2.2 ka, and so is at least 4,040 years older than thought. Using the imaging approach, we also assign a minimum age of 53.5 ± 2.3 ka to a newly described cave art scene at Leang Karampuang. Painted at least 51,200 years ago, this narrative composition, which depicts human-like figures interacting with a pig, is now the earliest known surviving example of representational art, and visual storytelling, in the world.” (Aubert 2024) This is also the oldest example of a painted image known today.
Maxime Aubert, an archeologist at Australia’s Griffith University and a member of the team that did this study reported that “The painting, which is in poor condition, shows three people around a wild pig. ‘We don't know exactly what they're doing,’ Aubert admitted. He speculated that the paintings were likely made by the first group of humans who moved through Southeast Asia before arriving in Australia around 65,000 years ago. ‘It's probably just a matter of time before we find samples that are older,’ Aubert added.” (Lawler 2024) This is possibly a hunting scene, but the authors admit that the painting is in such poor condition that the activity of the human figures cannot be determined.
Up until now it has been assumed (based upon the
imagery in the painted caves of Europe) that human representation in
Paleolithic painting did not exist until relatively later in the sequence.
These panels from Sulawesi, however, put the lie to that with human figures
represented in the oldest painted panels yet discovered and dated.
“It is evident from these findings that the use of figurative depiction has a particularly deep antiquity in the history of early human visual culture. Presently, the earliest widely accepted evidence for image-making by our species is from Middle Stone Age southern Africa (around 100–75 ka) and comprises geometric motifs (grid-like patterns) incised on small ochre nodules. It is therefore an open question whether the origin of figurative depiction can be traced to an artistic culture that arose in Africa after the emergence of this early tradition of producing non-representational marks, or somewhere outside it after the dispersal of H. sapiens, including in Southeast Asia.” (Aubert 2024) The ‘figurative depiction’ referenced in this comment is not restricted to the depiction of human figures, indeed, this comment is referring to the figure of the pig as well as the humans around it.
Although it
is in pretty poor shape, the researchers are confident that the large dated
figure is one of Sulawesi’s native pigs, they believe that it is a
representation of Sus celebensis, the Sulawesi Warty Pig.
“The visible elements of the scene are dominated by a large (92 . 38 cm) naturalistic red painting of a suid (most probably S. celebensis). This animal figure is represented as a pictorial outline shown in side (profile) view with an infill pattern consisting of painted strokes or lines. It is therefore consistent in style with the visual convention used to represent pigs and other animals in the dated Late Pleistocene rock art of South Sulawesi, including at Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4. Other pig motifs (n = 5) are present at Leang Karampuang, but do not seem to be associated with the dated panel. In the latter, the pig is standing in a static position with its mouth partly open. At least three human-like figures (denoted H1 to H3) were depicted in close association with the pig as part of a single composition. The former were portrayed using the same red-hued pigment and broadly the same stylistic convention as the pig, although they are smaller in size.” (Aubert 2024) Does the relative size of the pig and the assumed humans have any meaning. They are so small relative to the pig, does this perhaps indicate that it has some great measure of importance to the humans, a deity, a clan symbol?
As Aubert said above, the team is now assuming that they will find even older examples with continued dating. This really turns the ‘European Art First’ world around, doesn’t it?
NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.
REFERENCES:
Lawler, Daniel, 2024, World’s oldest artwork discovered in Indonesian cave, 3 July 2024, https://phys.org/news/. Accessed online 3 July 2024.
Aubert, Maxime, 2024, Narrative cave art in Indonesia by 51,200 years ago, 3 July 2024,
www.nature.com. Accessed online 3 July 2024.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment