A team of scientists led by Dr. Anthony Dosseto (Anthony Dosseto) from the University of Wollongong (New South Wales, Australia) determined the age of petroglyphs found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The study showed that the drawings were made in the period from 17 400 to 39 900 years ago, that is the earliest of them are among the oldest examples of prehistoric art in the world.
First drawings in limestone caves of Sulawesi were discovered in the 1950s. They have been studied by Indonesian scientists, but little has been done publications.
Images include representatives of the fauna of the place: the dwarf buffalo Anoa (Anoa sp.), Knobbed warty pig (Sus celebensis) and babirussu (Babyrousa sp.). Also, there are stereotyped images of hands of primitive artists, for which palm pressed against the surface of the rock and sprayed mouth liquid ink.
Earlier cave paintings of this age was known only in Europe. The oldest dated sample is considered, the image of red disk on the wall of the cave of El Castillo in Spain, the age of 41000 years.
Age paintings from the island of Sulawesi was determined by the ratio of isotopes of uranium and thorium in koralloidah – small, size 5 – 20 mm, calcareous formations like stalactites and stalagmites. They are also known as “cave popcorn”. Age “popcorn”, which had formed over the figures, shows the date, not later than which they were applied.
The oldest of the surveyed figures appeared stencil hands of the cave Leang Timpuseng. Image of female babirussy appeared more than 35,400 years ago, making it one of the oldest figurative images in the world.
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