The Oldest Painting In The World, 44 Thousand Years Old, Was Found In A Cave In Sulawesi

Painting found by archaeologists (Ratno Sardi / researchgate.net)

JAKARTA - A 44,000 year old painting was found on a wall in Leang Bulu 'Sipong Cave, Sulawesi. Interestingly, the panel of the painting depicts an anoa being hunted by a creature believed to be half human and half animal.

The painting is not the oldest in the world. In 2018, researchers said they found the oldest human painting on a rock in South Africa, which is 73,000 years old.

But researchers say the painting could be the oldest narrative painting ever found. Apart from that, the cave paintings in Sulawesi are also thought to be the oldest animal paintings ever found.

"I've never seen a painting like this before. I mean, we often see a painting in stone, but we never see a painting depicting hunting," said Adam Brumm, archaeologist at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, quoted from Nature.com , Thursday 12 December.

The painting was first discovered by Adam Brumm's colleague, Hamrullah, who is an archaeologist based in Sulawesi. He found the painting after cutting down a tree to pass the narrow path to the cave passage.

Other researchers say this discovery is important because the animal paintings are the oldest works of figurative art, which clearly depict objects or figures in nature at that time. However, other researchers also estimate that the painting could be a series of story panels that were worked on over a long period of time, so it is not just describing one event.

Half human and half animal creatures in mythology are known as therianthropy. In the painting, the therianthropic creature is depicted as a human who has a muzzle and a tail.

Humans in Sulawesi who lived at the time the paintings were made are believed to have the ability to imagine something that did not exist in the world. Researchers also reveal that the painting depicts something supernatural.

Previously, the oldest paintings of therianthropic creatures were found in Germany, which researchers estimated to be 40,000 years old, or perhaps even younger. The creature is described as half human and half lion.

In addition, there is also a painting around 17,000 years old depicting a bird-headed human being caught by a bison. The painting was found in the Lascaux Caves, Montignac, France, and is considered one of the most vivid narrative paintings in European rock art.