Sulawesi rock art older than previously thought

Some very exciting news about cave art was released in early July 2024. An article in Nature, 03 July 2024, about the cave art at Maros-Pangkep, Sulawesi, Indonesia. It has been re-dated using laser-ablation U-series imaging, giving a result of over 51,200 years. So this makes it the oldest known narrative rock art showing human-animal interactions. This predates similar European art. 

Previous dating was based on solution uranium-series (U-series) analysis of calcite deposits overlying rock art in the limestone caves of Maros-Pangkep. There a hunting scene from Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4, was originally dated using the previous approach to a minimum of 43,900 years ago. The new technique gives a minimum age of 50.2 ± 2.2 ka, so is at least 4,040 years older than thought.

Also "a newly described cave art scene at Leang Karampuang. Painted at least 51,200 years ago, this narrative composition, which depicts human-like figures interacting with a pig, is now the earliest known surviving example of representational art, and visual storytelling, in the world."

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See my other blogs on Indonesian rock art

Oldest cave art again found in Indonesia        Jan 2021

Sulawesi cave paintings now older than first thought   Oct 2014

Cave of Hands, Leang Leang, Maros, Sulawesi   Nov 2011

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For a long list of media references to the new dating, see SEAArch .

Oldest cave art again found in Indonesia

 Once again the oldest rock art / cave paintings have been found in Indonesia, again in Sulawesi. This time it is a 45,000 year old painting of a Sulawesi warty pig from the Maros-Pangkep area. In mid Jan 2021 there were plenty of media reports about this. 

Science Advances carries the full article on 13 Jan 2021, "Oldest cave art found in Sulawesi". This is their abstract -

I was in the Maros area in 1994 and saw this babi rusa in Pettakere Cave in the Leang Leang Park -

Hand stencils, rock art, Anthony Gormley BBC2

An interesting documentary on BBC2 by British sculptor Anthony Gormley. Gormley is probably best known for his "Angel of the North" statue. In the documentary, he was investigating the age of art, having originally thought that Europe had the oldest art - from the cave paintings in France and Spain.

This is taken from the BBC2 webpage -
"Why do humans make art? When did we begin to make our mark on the world? And where? In this film, Britain's most celebrated sculptor Antony Gormley is setting out on a journey to see for himself the very beginnings of art.

Once we believed that art began with the cave paintings of Ice Age Europe, tens of thousands of years ago. But now, extraordinary new discoveries around the world are overturning that idea. Antony is going to travel across the globe, and thousands of years back in time, to piece together a new story of how art began. He discovers beautiful, haunting and surprising works of art, deep inside caves across France, Spain and Indonesia, and in Australian rock shelters. He finds images created by hunter-gatherers that surprise him with their tenderness, and affinity with the natural world. He discovers the secrets behind the techniques used by our ancestors to create these paintings. And he meets experts making discoveries that are turning the clock back on when art first began.

Finally Antony asks what these images from millennia ago can tell us - about who we are. As he says, 'If we can look closely at the art of our ancestors, perhaps we will be able to reconnect with something vital that we have lost."

I was particularly interested in the hand stencils, these are found on 3 continents. Firstly Gormley showed those in  Pech Merle Cave in France. Photos taken from the Pech Merle webpage -

Gormley spoke to French archaeologist Michel Lorblanchet, who has suggested that the application of the paint for some of the paintings was probably by means of a delicate spitting technique. He says the 200 black spots had the charcoal (?) applied this way, as well as the 6 hand stencils. Lorblanchet then demonstrated making his own hand stencil on a rock outside, by chewing charcoal and gently spitting onto the rock. It took about 45 minutes. The paintings are actually deep in the cave, the ancient artists would have used light from fire, and then used charcoal from the fire for their paintings.

Gormley talks about how Neanderthals are usually considered to have inferior mind and didn't produce cave art. He went to El Castillo Cave in Spain, and talked to Professor Alistair Pike, who has worked on dating techniques. There are 40 hand stencils in this cave. Some of these red stencils are now covered with calcite, dated at 37,000 years. 40,800 for the red dots. The calcite arrived after the stencils were made. These are some of the oldest of European paintings and most have been done by Neanderthals. Pike also worked at Maltraviso Cave in west Spain, where there are many hand stencils, and found calcite deposits on the stencils dating to older than 66,000 years old. This is 25,000 years before humans arrived in Spain, so must have been done by Neanderthals.

This shows art was done earlier than first thought. And was done by Neanderthals, not humans.

Gormley then went to Sulawesi, in Indonesia. Cave art has been found here, and was done at the same time as the paintings in Europe, but the people presumably had no contact. He met Maxine Aubert and sees more hand stencils. Unfortunately many of the paintings have disappeared over the last 30 years as parts of the rock surface have fallen off, probably due to pollution.

I saw some of these paintings in 1994. My blog, Cave of Hands. The babi rusa was probably painted with a brush.

They go on to Leang Timpuseng, with a babi rusa painting, dated at minimum 35k years old, as well as a hand stencil dated at 40 k, minimum . The babi rusa would be the world's oldest figurative art. There is now an archaeological dig in the cave.

So the Indonesian and Europe art is about the same age, done on opposite sides of the world. Is there similar art to be found in say Africa, India etc?

Next, Gormley went to the Kimberley in Australia. This has a huge variety of rock art, animals, plants and humans, but hasn't been properly dated yet. There are no paintings of humans in Europe, but there are in the Kimberley, showing humans "celebrating, and alive". There are also hand stencils.

As Gormley says, these separated communities of modern man left signs of being, a human need to express something. Whereas the practice of painting in Europe ended about 10 k years ago, in the Kimberley rock art is still a part of spiritual life. There is still a living connection.

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BBC2 Antony Gormley: How Art Began,  2019, 73 minutes, official website.

Oldest rock art of mammal in Kalimantan

In Nov 2018 it was revealed that the oldest animal drawing has been found in a cave in East Kalimantan. In Lubang Jeriji Saléh there are 3 cow-like creatures drawn on the walls and dated to 40,000. This makes them older than the babirusa drawings from Maros in Sulawesi, which are about 35,000 years old.

The drawings in Kalimantan are thought to be of banteng. Banteng, also known as tembadau, (Bos javanicus) is a species of wild cattle found in Southeast Asia. I have never seen one in the wild. They have been domesticated in places.

Also in the cave are many hand prints, dated at 52,000 – 40,000 years. See article in Nat Geog Nov 2018, and Nature.

Gua Tambun closed again

Gua Tambun is closed again. Once again, the reason is lack of maintenance. The site was closed in July 2018.

Ever since the rock art at Gua Tambun was discovered in 1959, the site has not been looked after. Over the years the Perak state government and / or Ipoh town council have made attempts, which are more verbal than practical.

I've written about the lack of protection in 2009. The steps are often overgrown -

Ipoh City Council is supposed to be doing the latest clean up, let's see what  happens............

See more on SEAArch 17 July 2018.

Cave paintings found at Ao Luek, Krabi

The Nation on 7 June 2018 reported that "More than 60 ancient paintings, thought to be around 3,000-5,000 years old, have been found at the Khao Pru Tee Mae cliff in Mount Chong Lom, Ao Luek, Krabi. A team of archaeologists from the Fine Arts Department last month found more than 30 paintings of monkeys, humans, elephants and geometric forms along the 300-metre-high cliff.".

Then in the first week of June they found 30 more paintings. These paintings represent adults and children, marine life, fishermen and elephants.

As the area hasn't been fully surveyed, it is expected that more paintings will be found.

The cliffs and caves in the Krabi area are already known to archaeologists. The area is thought to have been inhabited by homo sapiens since around 35,000 years ago.

See photos of the paintings on thethaiger .

See my blog on the petroglyphs in Tham Phi Hua To near Ao Luek.

Sulawesi cave paintings now older than first thought

Exciting news about the age of the cave paintings at Maros in Sulawesi, Indonesia. They are now said to be older than first thought.

I saw some of these paintings in 1994. My blog on Cave of Hands and an article I wrote for The Star.


The paintings at Leang Burung 2 were originally dated by Glover to between c.31,000-20,000 BP. The paintings are quite well known and include red ochre hand stencils and paintings of animals such as babirusa - an endemic wild suid [Encyclopedia of Caves and Karst Science, 2004].

Now Dr Maxime Aubert of Griffith University, Queensland, Australia has redated the paintings. The oldest is at least 40,000 years old. The minimum age for the hand stencil is 39,999 years old, which makes it the oldest hand stencil in the world. The babirusa or pig has a minimum age of 35,400 years. Other paintings are 27,000 years old, which means the inhabitants were painting for at least 13,000 years.

Until now, paintings this age have only been known from caves in Western Europe.

These new dates for the Sulawesi caves mean that ideas about our evolution will have to be revised. Maybe art came out of Africa, not from Europe.

In northern Spain, cave paintings at El Castillo have been dated at 37,300 years old (41K). They are similiar to the ones at Bone, which is 100 km north of Maros. The famous paintings of animals at Chauvet Cave in France are about 37,000 years old. Some Australian rock art is thought to be of a similiar age but the dates are not confirmed. The oldest confirmed Australian rock painting is 27,000 years old at the Arnhem Land site of Nawarla.

The Maros ages were determined by measuring ratios of isotopes of uranium and thorium in tiny stalactites that had formed on top of the paintings.

The paintings at Bone could not be dated because the stalactite growths do not occur.

The scientific paper was published in Nature 514, 9 Oct 2014.

Other refs :

SEAArch

BBC    (it is worth watching the video on this link)

 Australian Geographic

The Guardian 

National Geographic

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Batek orang asli at Merapoh

There are several caves in the Merapoh area that have rock art. These simple drawings are done in black, presumably charcoal, and can be seen on walls of rock shelters and on the walls outside caves.

The drawings are thought to be done by the local orang asli, or aboriginal people. They are typical of other drawings at orang asli sites in West Malaysia.

In the Merapoh area, the orang asli are from the Batek group. They live in a new settlement at Gunung Jebuk / Gunung Teluk Gunung. The government has built them new houses

 and is working on the water supply -

We went to the kampung in Dec 2012 to ask about caves at Gunung Jebuk

However it is not known if people from this village did rock drawings in the area.
Read more on SEArch blog.

Some of my blogs on the rock art :

Gua Seribu Cerita 
Gua Lima

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Rock art v graffiti in Malaysian caves

My article which compares rock art to modern graffiti was published in The Star on 22 March 2014.


Gua Badak: Cave art from the past

by liz price

 

Significant scribblings: This was how the Gua Badak drawings on the cave face looked like in 1992. Now they have faded. - Photos LIZ PRICE

   

Pre-historic drawings in some caves spark the imagination.


IMAGINE a family of cave men sitting in their cave shelter at the end of the day. The hunters have been successful and managed to catch some prey for the evening meal. The gatherers have gathered enough vegetables to supplement the meat. Everyone is contented.
The sun has not yet set over the plains. One or two people decide to while away their time by drawing. Paper hasn’t been invented yet. Pens and ink are unheard of. So what do the budding artists do? Pick up small pieces of red stone and draw on the cave walls.
Back then, people led a simple life so the objects they drew were limited to what they could see in everyday life. This, of course, was predominately food. And so the people drew animals they hunted and could eat.
Today, thousands of years later, these drawings still exist. What might have been the cave man’s doodles have become important archaeological art.

One man’s dugong is another man’s alien creature — the famous painting in Tambun, Perak.

The cliff face at Gua Tambun in Perak is a great example. The pre-historic drawings are located high up the face of a cliff that rises 50m above ground level. You have to climb a steep staircase to reach the cliff; be careful, as parts of these steps are covered by undergrowth.
At the top of the steps, you will come to the wide ledge in front of the cliff. The ancient paintings are mostly situated about 7m above this present-day floor level, and most depict animals. The main picture, featured in many articles and tourist brochures, is thought to depict a dugong.
It’s always interesting to view the paintings with other people as everyone has different ideas on what they represent. It can turn out to be quite a guessing game.
I imagine them to be a pig, a deer, and a round one looks like a turtle. Another seems to be a giant catfish – so were there large catfish in the rivers in those ancient days? There is even what appears to be a man with enlarged genitals!
Other motifs show abstract shapes, even a row of exclamation marks. It’s nice just to sit and gaze at the drawings and let your imagination come up with all sorts of ideas. Even archaeological researchers, who have recorded more than 500 individual drawings, are not really sure what some of the pictures represent.
Thought to be about 2,000 years old, the artwork was drawn probably with haematite. This red-coloured iron-based rock can be found around Gua Tambun, so the “artists” didn’t have too far to go for their materials.

Does this look like a scene from a Beano or Dandy comic? Paintings of figures in Niah Painted Cave, Sarawak.

Presumably, back then, the floor level was much higher, enabling the artists to draw on the rock wall. At the same time, they would have had a wonderful view of the plains which are now Ipoh and its surroundings.
Fast-forward to the present day. Graffiti is generally frowned upon, especially when drawn on buildings and walls without permission. Some exceptions are when the art is particularly good and admired, such as the recent paintings on walls in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Penang.
These city paintings are becoming a trend and, in the last few months, more and more have appeared. Some are now considered tourist attractions, and have even been sponsored by paint companies. So I wonder if, when the ancient cave people started to draw, did those around them scold them and tell them to stop. Or was it considered an art form even then?
Unlike drawing on paper or building walls, cave walls have limited space. After a while, there would be no more room for new drawings. It is rare to see ancient cave drawings that have been drawn over existing ones.
However, cave drawings can last over a millennia and are unlikely to be destroyed compared to those on buildings.

The Merapoh stick figure.

Apart from Gua Tambun’s drawings, the Painted Cave at Niah National Park in Sarawak is another good example of cave art. The paintings there are thought to be 1,200 years old and show “death ships” that carried the dead to the after-life.
To get there, you have to go through the Great Cave of Niah, which is famous for its archaeology and collection of birds nests. The Painted Cave is just beyond the ‘back door’ of the Great Cave.
At first, it is hard to see anything in the dark but, as your eyes adjust to the conditions in the cave, you can make out the red drawings on the wall at the back of the chamber, drawn with haematite. The “boats” are quite curved and show what I imagine to be rows of oarsmen. Interspersed with the boats are other shapes that are hard to determine, as well as several human figures. I would guess these represent hunters and warriors.
Drawings of animals can also be seen on the wall. I thought I spotted a sun with rays, but when I looked closer, I decided it was a person’s head with hair sticking up; further below, it looked like a human torso.
On the floor below are the remains ofthose “death ships”. They are actually boat-shaped coffins containing the remains of the deceased and a selection of items considered useful in the after-life, such as Chinese ceramics, ornaments and glass beads. These relics have been removed and sent to museums.
Some of the “coffins” have been dated as more than 700 years old. However, Niah Cave has an older history – a skull found there in 1958 is around 40,000 years old and it is thought that humans used the cave as far back as 46,000 years ago.

There’s a whole lot of things going on here. It would be fascinating to uncover the stories behind these cave drawings in Merapoh.

Apart from the pre-historic drawings, there are examples of modern “rock art”. These are thought to have been done by the Orang Asli, maybe 100 years ago. The best known of these are at Gua Badak in Lenggong, Perak. These charcoal drawings depict everyday happenings, such as a monkey climbing a coconut tree, people fishing, animals such as a horse and turtles, mats with patterns, and even cars.
Sadly, these drawings have really faded over the years; today, it is hard to see them clearly. Also the hill has been quarried, resulting in many fallen boulders in front of the rock face. Gua Badak is now part of the Lenggong World Heritage Site, but visitors are often disappointed with the sorry state of the place.
Over in Pahang, in the Merapoh area close to the Kelantan border, are more examples of pre-historic drawings. These have not been studied but are also thought to be modern and drawn in charcoal. These were only found in the past year, during our frequent trips to look for caves in the Merapoh area.
There are about six caves or rock shelters in Merapoh with drawings but, unlike those at Lenggong, the Merapoh ones are not easy to decipher. Some seem to show stick figures in strange positions; one looks like a skier, but I can’t believe it can be in tropical Malaysia!

Much of Gua Badak has been quarried.

There are lots of squiggles, including what looks like a railway line that runs through Merapoh. Maybe it was drawn when the Orang Asli first saw the railway constructed. They all seem to be drawn in charcoal.
Across the border in Kelantan there is at least one cave near Gua Musang with drawings similar to those in Merapoh. It would be good to get them professionally dated.
So this begs the question, when does graffiti become archaeological artefact and have historical significance?


Related story:

Getting to the caves
         

Gua Tambun       
This cave is located just outside Ipoh and is easily accessible to the general public. Head towards Tambun – the Gua Tambun rock shelter is in the hill behind the army camp. You can either park by the petrol station, or turn into the housing area behind it and park there. The trail is sign-posted and follows the edge of the stables and horse exercise area, then over a small stream and leads to the stairs that go up to the rock shelter. There is a small pondok and information board. Entrance is free.
As the drawings are located on the cliff face, you don’t need a torch to see them.

Painted Cave At Niah
The Painted Cave is part of Niah National Park. Niah is 110km south-west of Miri and 130km from Bintulu. The Park is located about 3km from the small town of Batu Niah. There is a regular bus service from Miri and Bintulu, to Batu Niah; taxis are also available. From Batu Niah, if arriving by bus or taxi, you can take a long-boat along the river, or take a taxi, or walk.
The park has a visitor centre, cafeteria and accommodation consisting of chalets and hostel-type rooms. There are no cooking facilities. There are also small hotels and eating places in Batu Niah.
The Great Cave of Niah is about 3.5km from the Park HQ and can be reached by a network of plank walks. The path takes you through the rock shelter of Trader’s Cave and then the West Mouth of the Great Cave. You have to walk through the Great Cave, then continue through another short section of forest to reach the Painted Cave. Do take a torch with you as you will need it to go through the Great Cave.
You can visit Niah as a day trip from Miri, but it is nicer to stay overnight in the park. Then you don’t have to rush and you can also watch the evening swiftlets and bats fly in and out of the cave.
There is an entry fee to the park, payable on arrival at HQ. Fees (subject to change): for adults – RM10 (locals) and RM20 (foreigners); for children (over six) – RM3 (locals) and RM7 (foreigners).
National Parks Booking Office
c/o Visitors Information Centre
Lot 452, Jln Melayu,
98000 Miri, Sarawak.
Tel: 085-434184
Fax: 085-434179
The office is closed on Sat, Sun and public holidays.

Gua Badak
It is located a few kilometres north of Lenggong town, in a kampung of the same name. There is no signboard on the main road, only on the kampung road. A narrow track leads to a small parking area where a new pondok has been built. It is only a couple of minutes walk to the rock face with the paintings. Do take care as there are many fallen boulders. Entrance is free.


© Liz Price

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Rock art of Gua Seribu Cerita on TV

In Feb 2013 I wrote about some rock art in Gua Seribu Cerita in Merapoh, Pahang, Malaysia. At the same time we were filming in several of the caves for a documentary called Misi Merapoh. This was shown on TV on 21 October 2013.

The documentary is just under an hour long. Here is a segment of me talking about the drawings in Gua Seribu Cerita.

Merapoh 2013 - more cave drawings, Gua Lima area

At the end of Sept 2013 I was back in Merapoh. We spent a couple of days caving in the Gua Lima area, which is just outside Kpg Merapoh. We found a few more caves with black drawings on the walls. They are similar to those at Gua Badak in Lenggong, Perak, although those have more recognisable objects such as people, animals, bicycles, trees etc.

It is not known if the Merapoh drawings are the same age as the Lenggong ones, but the latter have deteriorated over the years and are now really faded. It is thought the drawings may have been made by the local orang asli.

The first ones are on the wall of a long rock shelter, Gua Gajah Gosok, this is near a cave we named as Gua Empat Tingkat.

Some of the drawings look like people -

Various human like shapes can be seen as well as one set of squares -

There were also sign of elephants having rubber along the centre hanging rock -

From here we moved onto another hill in the area

and we named the cave Gua Jambatan Batu from this bridge -

There were drawings in the upper section

The one on the top right looks like the sun

One the next 2, the left one looks like a deer from outer space, the one on the right Habli said is a tiger eating a person!

The cave has some nice formations -

 and a few bats -

One wall was blackened from soot from fires. Outside I found a piece of pottery

A short, but interesting cave.

Another cave in the area with drawings. This is Gua Lima, aka Gua Terowong Felcra. I first visited this cave in 1996 but missed the drawings then as they are on the upper level above the entrance. I also came back in Sept 2013 and again didn't know the drawings were there.

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See Feb 2013 blog of Gua Seribu Cerita for more cave drawings.

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October 16 2013, Noel has now blogged about this rock art on his site, SEAArch, and put forward interesting suggestions. See Rock Art from Merapoh, Pahang.

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Blog on Batek orang asli who may have done the drawings

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© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Caves around Gua Musang, Kelantan

The town of Gua Musang in Kelantan, Malaysia is surrounded by limestone hills. The most famous cave is also called Gua Musang and is in the hill right behind the railway station.

In 2005 I spent a few days caving with some friends from Ipoh and we took time to look for other caves in the area. There are many listed in my Cave register but none seem to have been documented otherwise.

We stayed in chalets in Taman Ethnobotani. The park has some small limestone outcrops used for rock climbing and abseiling. There is a short tunnel cave

We went to the small town of Pulai, south of Gua Musang and to Princess Mountain, Bukit Tok Cu.

At the time, a temple was being built up on the hill. Apparently in 1984 a man had a vision of stairs being built and in 1997 the building was started - concrete steps lead up to a small Taoist temple, Gung Ju San.

There is an upper level cave passage and you can look down into a big chamber.

We looked at other hills in the area but I didn't take many photos (I was still new to digital cameras in those days!). In Gua Sidang we found some charcoal cave drawings, Jawi writing and Chinese graffiti.

Next cave we visited I named Bombed Cave - apparently it was bombed by the British during the Emergency, as they thought Communists were hiding inside. [This was possibly 1950 when there was a lot of fighting in the area, e.g. the battle of Ulu Semur]
Some enormous slabs had fallen from the roof at some time.

The cave is a large chamber with a small stream running through. There were lots of sacks of guano.

We nicknamed this hill (Gua Serai) in Gua Musang as Mangy Dog hill!

In the Chin Teck plantation we went to Gua Batu Hijau

There are fruit and insect bats and lots of brown stains

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission