Drawn on the walls of a remote cave in Indonesia, hidden in the middle of tropical forests, a series of cave paintings is allowing scientists to redefine the prehistory of Art. The last finding is a set of scenes that represent images of a hunt with human and animal figures, painted at least 43,900 years ago in a cave on the island of Celebes. The discovery is described in an article published Wednesday in Nature and means the first representation of a known hunting scene, as well as the oldest example of figurative art and painting created by Homo Sapiens .

In one of the rooms of the Leang Bulu 'Sipong cave, the archaeologists of the Australian University of Griffith have located an elaborate scene with at least eight small human-shaped figures, equipped with spears or ropes, which appear alongside two wild boars and four buffaloes . All were painted at the same time, in the same artistic style, with the same technique and the same ocher pigment. According to the researchers, the juxtaposition of animals and recreated human figures demonstrates a complex narrative intention on the part of its author.

The human figures are particularly striking, with simplified and highly stylized shapes and, in some cases, animal characteristics such as snouts. Archaeologists suggest that they are teriantropic characters (with the ability to change from human to animal form) , indicating that the art created by the first settlers of the island demonstrates a complex conception and representation about the connection between human being and nature. "The use of teriantropic beings suggests a religious thought of some kind," says Maxime Aubert, a professor at the Australian university and one of the main authors of the Nature article, "but the exact intention of the artists who created these images, what it's exactly what they were trying to portray, I think we can never know. "

A detail of the hunting scene from 40,000 years ago. Adam Brumm

In any case, the researchers emphasize that this figurative representation of hunters is the oldest proof of the ability to imagine the existence of supernatural beings, the cornerstone of spiritual and religious conception. "The most fascinating thing in this research is that the oldest rock art in humanity already has all the key components related to modern cognition: figurative art, storytelling, religious thinking, etc.," says Aubert. "So it must have a much older origin, possibly in Africa or shortly after we left Africa."

The origin of art

Aubert and his team discovered in 2014 the silhouette of a hand created more than 40,000 years ago using the stencil technique , painted on the limestone of a cave on the same island. Last year they unveiled the drawing of a wild cow from the same period on the neighboring island of Borneo, two findings that have placed the Indonesian archipelago as one of the key points to understand the beginnings of Art and modern human thought. "There are at least 242 known rock art sites in an area of ​​450 km2 in Sulawesi and probably hundreds more waiting to be discovered only in this region," says the researcher, "the rest has never been explored, so who he knows what else is out there. "

It is believed that the first sapiens arrived on the island as part of a large migration that departed from East Africa about 60,000-70,000 years ago, probably across the Red Sea and the Arabian Peninsula to India. At that time Borneo was still part of the continent, although to reach Sulawesi - which has always been an island - they would have needed boats or rafts to cross almost 100 km of sea. Although human remains of this period have not yet been found in the archipelago, it is believed that the first settlers are closely related to the first inhabitants to arrive in Australia, 50,000 years ago. Research suggests that these pioneers would probably look similar to the aborigines and Papuans of today.

Complex thinking

Some scientists believe that the feature that has distinguished sapiens from other species is our ability to think and plan for the future and to remember and learn from the past. Some experts refer to this unique feature as "higher order awareness" and it was a huge evolutionary advantage that allowed our ancestors to cooperate, survive in hostile environments and colonize new lands. And it also opened the door to imaginary kingdoms, spiritual worlds and a great variety of intellectual and emotional connections.

For a long time it was considered that this evolution had its origin in Europe, where most of the artistic examples of this period had been found: the paintings of the cave of Chauvet, in France (between 35,300 and 38,800 years), the ivory figures found in caves of the German region of Swabia or some of the representations on the ceiling of the polychrome of Altamira, among others . "But the truth is that all the main components of a highly advanced artistic culture were also present in Celebes 44,000 years ago, including figurative art, scenes and teriántropos," says Aubert.

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