Three years ago, the world's oldest figurative painting was found in Sulawesi, Indonesia, with an estimated age of around 45,500 years. This week the discovery of an older figurative painting was announced and it is estimated to be around 51,200 years old. This at the same time changes the current understanding of when humans began to produce creative works of art.
The painting was found in a cave located in Bukit Karampuang, Sulawesi in 2017 by Oki Amrullah, a Cultural Heritage Guard. It shows the figure of three humans hunting pigs with spear-like weapons. It depicts the story of humans hunting and this is in contrast to the stone carvings and palm prints also found on the cave walls.
Only after a study was carried out by the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), the true age of this painting was successfully confirmed by taking samples cut using a laser.
If you want to see the world's oldest paintings produced by human hands, you need to go to Blombos Cave in South Africa which is estimated to be 75,000-100,000 years old. It displays geometric patterns measured on the surface of the stone. Figurative painting shows human development in the field of art starting from basic patterns before producing abstract paintings like in Sulawesi.