A 44,000-year-old mural is now the oldest example of humans telling stories with pictures. Take a look at the epic hunt it shows.

Dec 13, 2019, 02:04 IST

When he first visited the cave, Hamrullah had to climb a nearby fig tree to reach the opening.

"We had never previously found distinct 'scenes,'" in this area of Indonesia, Brumm said.

In part of the mural, a creature called an anoa, a relative of water buffalo, is surrounded by human-like figures carrying spears and possibly ropes.

Human-animal hybrids like this are called "therianthropes." Their presence in the mural indicates that the artist could think abstractly and creatively, according to the study.

The ability to imagine beings that don't exist is a cognitive milestone that forms the basis of religion and spirituality, Maxime Aubert, a co-author of the study, told Science.

Brumm and his team were able to date the mural by analyzing the age of mineral deposits on top of the painting.

Before this finding, the oldest therianthrope ever found was an approximately 40,000-year-old carved figurine of a lion-headed man.

The oldest cave art ever found before now is in Lascaux Cave, an archaeological site in southern France. That was previously considered to be the oldest example of storytelling.

But the Leang Bulu' Sipong 4 mural is some 20,000 years older than the oldest known hunting scenes in European cave art.

Archaeologist Bruno David, who was not involved in the study, told Nature that the painting's age and narrative quality "could mean that early humans have arrived in southeast Asia with the capacity for symbolic representation and storytelling."

Archaeologist Bruno David, who was not involved in the study, told Nature that the painting's age and narrative quality "could mean that early humans have arrived in southeast Asia with the capacity for symbolic representation and storytelling."

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A 44,000-year-old mural is now the oldest example of humans telling stories with pictures. Take a look at the epic hunt it shows.

When he first visited the cave, Hamrullah had to climb a nearby fig tree to reach the opening.

"We had never previously found distinct 'scenes,'" in this area of Indonesia, Brumm said.

In part of the mural, a creature called an anoa, a relative of water buffalo, is surrounded by human-like figures carrying spears and possibly ropes.

Human-animal hybrids like this are called "therianthropes." Their presence in the mural indicates that the artist could think abstractly and creatively, according to the study.

The ability to imagine beings that don't exist is a cognitive milestone that forms the basis of religion and spirituality, Maxime Aubert, a co-author of the study, told Science.

Brumm and his team were able to date the mural by analyzing the age of mineral deposits on top of the painting.

Before this finding, the oldest therianthrope ever found was an approximately 40,000-year-old carved figurine of a lion-headed man.

The oldest cave art ever found before now is in Lascaux Cave, an archaeological site in southern France. That was previously considered to be the oldest example of storytelling.

But the Leang Bulu' Sipong 4 mural is some 20,000 years older than the oldest known hunting scenes in European cave art.

Archaeologist Bruno David, who was not involved in the study, told Nature that the painting's age and narrative quality "could mean that early humans have arrived in southeast Asia with the capacity for symbolic representation and storytelling."