By Michelle Starr, 01/22/26.
Below see one of several photos published in Nature.
Researchers say they have identified the world’s oldest known cave painting off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, a finding that pushes back the origins of symbolic human art by at least a thousand years.
The discovery centers on a red hand stencil found inside a limestone cave on Muna Island, off southeastern Sulawesi. Scientific analysis shows the artwork is at least 67,800 years old, making it older than the previous record holder, a controversial hand stencil in Spain dated to around 66,700 years ago, according to the BBC.