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Indonesia | Cave painting of pig, 45,500 years old, may be earliest figurative art yet discovered

Writer's picture: Dave Harmon, PW editorDave Harmon, PW editor

In a hidden valley on an Indonesian island, there is a cave decorated with what may be the oldest figurative art ever glimpsed by modern eyes.


The vivid depiction of a wild pig, outlined and filled in with mulberry-hued pigment, dates back at least 45,500 years, according to a study published on Wednesday in Science Advances. It was discovered deep inside a cave called Leang Tedongnge in December 2017, during an archaeological survey led by Basran Burhan, a graduate student at Griffith University and co-author of the new research. The animal in the painting resembles the warty pig, a species still living today on the island of Sulawesi where the cave is.


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/science/cave-painting-indonesia.html

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