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Rock paintings, found in Borneo and dating back to at least 40,000 BC, might be the oldest figurative paintings in the world.
Archaeologists assume that the paintings of a cattle-like animal found in Asia are even elder than the European ones. For comparison, some of the most famous ancient European rock art was found in 1940 in Lascaux, France. Those paintings are estimated to be 20,000 years old.
The archaeologists said that the recently discovered paintings in Borneo depict an unidentified animal, perhaps a species of wild cattle that still found on the island.
The cave paintings were found hidden deep in the mountains of East Kalimantan after archaeologists hiked for days through rainforests filled with tigers and snakes.
The scientists were able to date maroon-colored hand stencils from the same cave, including one that could be up to 51,800 years old, CBC News reported.
The Asian cave is also rich with thousands of later drawings, from some 20,000 years ago, which depict human figures.
“Who the Ice Age artists of Borneo were and what happened to them is a mystery,” said team co-leader Dr Pindi Setiawan, an Indonesian archeologist and lecturer at the Bandung Institute of Technology.
