World’s oldest artwork found in Indonesian cave

Scientists have discovered what they believed to be the world’s oldest artwork that depicts three people gathering around a big red pig in a cave on the Indonesian island of South Sulawesi.

Research published on Nature magazine on Wednesday indicates the painting was created some 51,200 years ago.

Found inside the Leang Karampuang cave in the Maros-Pangkep region of South Sulawesi, the painting is in poor condition.

“This discovery of very old cave art in Indonesia drives home the point that Europe was not the birthplace of cave art, as had long been assumed. It also suggests that storytelling was a much older part of human history, and the history of art, in particular, than previously recognised,” said Griffith University archaeologist Adam Brumm Brumm, an author of the study.