@article {330050,
	title = {Narrative cave art in Indonesia by 51,200 years ago},
	journal = {Nature},
	year = {2024},
	month = {2024/07/03},
	abstract = {<p>Previous dating research indicated that the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is host to some of the oldest known rock art1\&ndash;3. 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 Sulawesi1\&ndash;3. Here we use a novel\&nbsp;application of this approach\&mdash;laser-ablation U-series imaging\&mdash;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\&rsquo; Sipong 4, which was originally dated using the previous approach to a minimum of 43,900\&thinsp;thousand years ago (ka)3, has a minimum age of\&nbsp;50.2\&thinsp;\&plusmn;\&thinsp;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\&thinsp;\&plusmn;\&thinsp;2.3\&thinsp;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 world3. Our findings show that figurative portrayals of anthropomorphic figures and animals have a deeper origin in the history of modern human (Homo sapiens) image-making than recognized to date, as does their representation in composed scenes.</p>
},
	isbn = {1476-4687},
	doi = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07541-7},
	url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07541-7},
	author = {Oktaviana, Adhi Agus and Joannes-Boyau, Renaud and Hakim, Budianto and Burhan, Basran and Sardi, Ratno and Adhityatama, Shinatria and Hamrullah and Sumantri, Iwan and Tang, M. and Lebe, Rustan and Ilyas, Imran and Abbas, Abdullah and Jusdi, Andi and Mahardian, Dewangga Eka and Noerwidi, Sofwan and Ririmasse, Marlon N. R. and Mahmud, Irfan and Duli, Akin and Aksa, Laode M. and McGahan, David and Setiawan, Pindi and Brumm, Adam and Aubert, Maxime}
}
