Cave paintings 40,000 years old discovered in Indonesia
- Published
Early artists made these pictures of handprints by carefully blowing paint around hands pressed tightly against the cave walls and ceilings. The oldest is at least 40,000 years old.
The discovery of the Indonesian cave art is important because it shows the beginnings of human intelligence as we understand it today. Until now, paintings this old had only been found in caves in Western Europe.
This is a picture of an animal which the people who painted it probably hunted. There are also human figures, and pictures of wild hoofed animals that are found only on the island.
This is harder to make out but at the top of the worn painting is a faint outline of a human hand, the oldest picture of this type ever found. Below it is possibly the earliest depiction of an animal.
There are also paintings in the caves that are around 27,000 years old, which means that the people who lived there were painting for at least 13,000 years.