Archaeologists have discovered the world’s oldest animal cave painting of a wild pig which is to believed to be drawn 45,500 years ago in Indonesia.
The old painting was painted by using dark red ochre pigment, the life sized picture of Sulawesi warty pig appears to be the part of the narrative scene.
The picture was found in the Leang Tedongnge cave in a remote valley on the island of Sulawesi. Which provides the earliest evidence of human settlement of the region.
“The people who made it were fully modern, they were just like us, they had all the capacity and the tools to do painting that they liked,” said Maxime Aubert, the co-author of the report published in Science Advances journal.
Mr Aubert, dating specialist had also identified a calcite deposits that had formed on the top of the painting, and used Uranium-series isotope dating to determine that the deposit was 45,500 years old. This makes the artwork atleast that old. “But it could be much older because the dating that we’re using only dates the calcite on top of it,” he added.
The report also mentions that the painting, which measures 136cm by 54cm (52in by 21in). depicts a pig with horn-like facial warts characteristic of adult males of the species.
There are two hand prints above the back of the pig, which also appears to be facing two other pigs that are only partially preserved.
Co- author Adam Brumm said: “The pig appears to be observing a fight or social interaction between two other warty pigs.”
The painting may be the world’s oldest art depicting a figure, but it is not the oldest human-produced art.