Narrative cave art in Indonesia by 51,200 years ago

Previous dating research indicated that the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is host to some of the oldest known rock art. Here we use laser-ablation U-series imaging to re-date some of the earliest cave art in this karst area and to determine the age of stylistically similar motifs at other Maros-Pangkep sites. This method provides enhanced spatial accuracy, resulting in older minimum ages for previously dated art. We show that a hunting scene from Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 has a minimum age of 50.2 ± 2.2 ka, and so is at least 4,040 years older than thought. We also assign a minimum age of 53.5 ± 2.3 ka to a newly described cave art scene at Leang Karampuang. Painted at least 51,200 years ago, this narrative composition, depicting human-like figures interacting with a pig, is now the earliest known surviving example of representational art and visual storytelling in the world. Our findings show that figurative portrayals of anthropomorphic figures and animals have a deeper origin in the history of modern human (*Homo sapiens*) image-making than recognized to date, as does their representation in composed scenes.

Adhi Agus Oktaviana, Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Budianto Hakim, Basran Burhan, Ratno Sardi, Shinatria Adhityatama, Hamrullah, Iwan Sumantri, M. Tang, Rustan Lebe, Imran Ilyas, Abdullah Abbas, Andi Jusdi, Dewangga Eka Mahardian, Sofwan Noerwidi, Marlon N. R. Ririmasse, Irfan Mahmud, Akin Duli, Laode M. Aksa, David McGahan, Pindi Setiawan, Adam Brumm, Maxime Aubert