Scientists: Salt is rapidly eroding the world's oldest cave paintings

The oldest cave paintings in the world are found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

archival

Archaeologists have warned that what is believed to be the world's oldest cave painting, found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, is being erased at a rapid rate due to salt crystallization likely caused by climate change.

The drawing, which shows a group of human ancestors apparently hunting animals, was found in a limestone cave in 2017, and dates back nearly 44,000 years.

Experts are racing against time to find ways to preserve the priceless Ice Age artwork.

"The impact is very severe, and it will destroy the drawings," Basran Burhan, an archaeologist at Australia's Griffith University, told Reuters after viewing the drawing in Maros.

Rising temperatures and the increasing intensity of the effects of the El Niño phenomenon have accelerated the crystallization of salt in the cave, which effectively means “peeling” the painting, according to a study by Australian and Indonesian archaeologists, published in the journal Scientific Reports last month.

The study said that prolonged drought, accompanied by heavy seasonal rains, created "extremely favorable" conditions that increased salt crystallization.

"The pigment that colors the image on the cave walls is peeling off," said archaeologist Rustan Lab.

Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news