Oldest figurative art discovered

JAKARTA: Archeologists discovered a series of 40,000-year-old cave paintings, oldest known figurative art, in the Indonesian island of Borneo.

The paintings were found in the Lubang Jeriji Saleh cave hidden behind the cluster of secluded karst mountains located in the East Kalimantan province at Sangkulirang-Mangkalihat Peninsula.

The region — located precisely in Borneo — was the eastern part of the Eurasian Continent in the ice age on an area of 13,000 square kilometers.

The discovery confirmed that rock arts could not only be found in Europe but also in Asia, I Made Geria, the head of National Archaeological Research Center (Arkenas), said in Jakarta.

“The potential of this past civilisation relics should be seen as a cultural capital to advance our country’s cultural wealth,” Geria said.

Intensive research on the rock arts began in 2014. Since the 1990s, the peninsula has been known to store a series of ancient images, including thousands of depictions of human hands (stencils), animals, abstract symbols, and interconnected motifs. The peninsula is described as an area surrounded by towering limestone hills and steep cliffs. There are limestone caves covered by dense tropical forests at the bottom.

The discovery was also published in the international scientific journal Nature under the title of “Palaeolithic cave art in Borneo”. “We hope that this research will be deepened to their creators. If fossils are discovered, it will be a good spirit for us all,” Geria said. The paintings were discovered by a team of 15 archaeologists from Arkenas, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and Griffith University Australia.

Adhi Agus Oktaviana, one of the researchers, said the oldest painting is a large-sized orange animal, a species of wild bull which can still be found in deep Borneo Forest.

After examining it with a geometric dating method, the painting is discovered to be 40,000 years old and declared to be the oldest figurative cave art found on earth.