Man’s Oldest Known Art Possibly Found

Australian and Indonesian scientists claim they have found the oldest known rock art in the world in Indonesia. According to the scientists, one of the images from the island of Sulawesi is at least 39,900 years old, making it the oldest known hand stencil. That paintings, specifically one of a pig-deer, is at least 35,400 years old. This discovery means that rock art was being produced both in Western Europe and the Pacific at the same time. The oldest-known painting prior to this is the 40,800-year-old red disk from El Castillo in Spain. The Sulawesi discovery directly challenges the notion that cave art 40,000 years ago represented an explosion of human creativity based in Western Europe.