Indonesian Cave Painting Dated to 51,200 Years

On July 3, 2024, Griffith University researchers led by Maxime Aubert and Adhi Agus Oktaviana published in Nature uranium-series dating of a flowstone covering a figurative narrative scene painted on the wall of Leang Karampuang cave in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The painting depicts three human-like figures interacting with a Sulawesi warty pig. The flowstone yielded a minimum age of 51,200 years, pushing the dated origin of representational human imagination back by approximately 7,000 years from the prior dated narrative scene, also in South Sulawesi (Leang Bulu Sipong 4, ~44,000 years).