Sulawesi hand stencil

A hand stencil on a cave wall on Muna Island, Indonesia, is at least 67,800 years old. It is the oldest dated cave art found so far.

Dating uses mineral crusts over the paint.

Context

Hand stencils are made by pressing a hand against rock and blowing or spraying pigment around it, which leaves a pale outline of the hand. The Sulawesi stencil, in a cave on Muna Island, was reported in a scientific paper in Nature as being at least 67,800 years old. Researchers also noted that the fingers seem to have been altered to look narrower, which suggests a deliberate design rather than a plain hand print.

The date comes from uranium-series dating of thin mineral crusts that formed over the pigment. Because the crust grew after the paint was applied, its age gives a minimum age for the art, which is why the figure is given as 'at least'. The real age of the stencil could be older.

The find matters because it shows that early modern humans in island Southeast Asia were making symbolic art at about the same time, or earlier than, people in Europe. It also fits the idea that these people were part of the early migrations toward Australia. Other claims of older art exist, for example from Spain, but those dates are contested, so this is described as the oldest dated cave art found so far.