A team of archeologists from Griffith University, Australia led by Professor Adam Brumm, Professor Maxime Aubert, and Basran Burhan (Ph.D. student) discovered possibly the world’s oldest known cave painting. It has been estimated to be dating back to at least 45,500 years ago. This figurative depiction of a Sulawesi warty pig, a wild boar regularly found on Indonesian islands, was located in the limestone cave of Leang Tedongnge. The painting in red ochre pigment shows a pig with short a crest of upright hair and a pair of horn-like facial warts in front of the eyes. The picture of the pig suggests that this animal has been valued for food and for creative expression in the form of art in medieval times. Till date many examples of rock art have been discovered in the caves in Sulawesi which include depiction of animals, narrative scenes, hybrid human-animal beings, etc. Some of it still remains to be scientifically dated. The latest discovery highlights the rich and creative heritage of Indonesian rock art and its evolution over time.
