Signs of Modern Human Cognition Were Found in an Indonesian Cave

Imagining things that do not exist in nature and weaving them into narratives are unique signatures of the human psyche. These abilities are abundantly evident in the earliest example of narrative art, which was recently discovered in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

more…

Tau.Neutrino said:

Signs of Modern Human Cognition Were Found in an Indonesian Cave

Imagining things that do not exist in nature and weaving them into narratives are unique signatures of the human psyche. These abilities are abundantly evident in the earliest example of narrative art, which was recently discovered in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

more…

Interesting.

How old are the oldest Australian cave paintings or rock art?

The Rev Dodgson said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Signs of Modern Human Cognition Were Found in an Indonesian Cave

Imagining things that do not exist in nature and weaving them into narratives are unique signatures of the human psyche. These abilities are abundantly evident in the earliest example of narrative art, which was recently discovered in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

more…

Interesting.

How old are the oldest Australian cave paintings or rock art?

I’m not sure about cave art. but the Aborigines have been here for at least 80,000 years and perhaps as long as 120,000 years.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Signs of Modern Human Cognition Were Found in an Indonesian Cave

Imagining things that do not exist in nature and weaving them into narratives are unique signatures of the human psyche. These abilities are abundantly evident in the earliest example of narrative art, which was recently discovered in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

more…

Interesting.

How old are the oldest Australian cave paintings or rock art?

Aboriginal artwork in the Kimberley could be among oldest in the world, scientists say

In Australia, dating has been relatively limited, but dates of between 13,000 to 15,000 years old have been recorded in Queensland, and up to 28,000 years in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

Given that Aboriginal people are believed to have arrived in northern Australia up to 50,000 years ago, Professor Veth said there was potential for older dates to emerge.

more…

Spiny Norman said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Signs of Modern Human Cognition Were Found in an Indonesian Cave

Imagining things that do not exist in nature and weaving them into narratives are unique signatures of the human psyche. These abilities are abundantly evident in the earliest example of narrative art, which was recently discovered in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

more…

Interesting.

How old are the oldest Australian cave paintings or rock art?

I’m not sure about cave art. but the Aborigines have been here for at least 80,000 years and perhaps as long as 120,000 years.

I thought it was about 50k years.

sibeen said:

Spiny Norman said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Interesting.

How old are the oldest Australian cave paintings or rock art?

I’m not sure about cave art. but the Aborigines have been here for at least 80,000 years and perhaps as long as 120,000 years.

I thought it was about 50k years.

I thought it was 65k :)

I hadn’t heard of anyone suggesting 120K, but I wouldn’t rule it out. The “Out of Africa” theory is in turmoil.

The Rev Dodgson said:

sibeen said:

Spiny Norman said:

I’m not sure about cave art. but the Aborigines have been here for at least 80,000 years and perhaps as long as 120,000 years.

I thought it was about 50k years.

I thought it was 65k :)

I hadn’t heard of anyone suggesting 120K, but I wouldn’t rule it out. The “Out of Africa” theory is in turmoil.

I didn’t think that aboriginals had been here particularly long, just that being an old static continent the evidence was better preserved. We were the last continent settled.

AwesomeO said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

sibeen said:

I thought it was about 50k years.

I thought it was 65k :)

I hadn’t heard of anyone suggesting 120K, but I wouldn’t rule it out. The “Out of Africa” theory is in turmoil.

I didn’t think that aboriginals had been here particularly long, just that being an old static continent the evidence was better preserved. We were the last continent settled.

No we weren’t. Humans have been in Australia far longer than in the Americas.

Tau.Neutrino said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Signs of Modern Human Cognition Were Found in an Indonesian Cave

Imagining things that do not exist in nature and weaving them into narratives are unique signatures of the human psyche. These abilities are abundantly evident in the earliest example of narrative art, which was recently discovered in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

more…

Interesting.

How old are the oldest Australian cave paintings or rock art?

Aboriginal artwork in the Kimberley could be among oldest in the world, scientists say

In Australia, dating has been relatively limited, but dates of between 13,000 to 15,000 years old have been recorded in Queensland, and up to 28,000 years in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

Given that Aboriginal people are believed to have arrived in northern Australia up to 50,000 years ago, Professor Veth said there was potential for older dates to emerge.

more…

There’s a world of difference between the dating of oldest aboriginal engravings and oldest aboriginal paintings.

The surviving engravings are much older, consisting initially of parallel grooves in rock, and are a devil to date accurately because there’s no new material there to date.

As for oldest aboriginal paintings – it was standard practice for every rock art painting to be maintained on a yearly (or near yearly) basis by painting over the old design. The overpainting slowly, over hundreds of years, changed the appearance markedly. So on the one hand it could be said that all surviving aboriginal paintings are less than 200 years old, the date at which overpainting was discontinued.

On the other hand, the tradition of painting in a particular location can be dated more accurately, and almost certainly dates way way back to the arrival of the first Homo sapiens. I’m being careful here because, with reference to the Pintubi-1 and Cow Swamp skulls, I’m not yet ruling out separate waves of colonisation from non-sapiens and sapiens species.

> https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/signs-of-modern-human-cognition-were-found-in-an-indonesian-cave

Anyway, back to Indonesia,

> Imagining things that do not exist in nature and weaving them into narratives are unique signatures of the human psyche.

Unique?

> At 44,000 years of age, they are the oldest known cave paintings made by modern humans.

Nice. But see comment above about maintenance.

> long-distance Stone Age trade in natural pigments as far back as 300,000 years ago. The earliest evidence of cave art is a 64,000-year-old hand stencil made by a Neandertal in the Maltravieso Cave in Cáceres, Spain. In Europe, there are also many examples of more elaborate representational cave art with literal depictions of animals and humans. Such representations of animals characterize the 35,000- to 30,000-year-old Chauvet Cave paintings in southern France, those of a similar age that were found in the Coliboaia Cave in Romania and the famous 20,000-year-old Lascaux Cave images.

> Sulawesi is a particularly rich site for ancient art. More than 240 caves with wall paintings have been identified on the island. The researchers who announced the recent discovery previously described a 35,000-year-old cave painting of a babirusa. The cave containing the earliest ancient art they have now described is called Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4. First discovered in 2017, it features a 15-foot-wide wall with monochromatic red ochre drawings.

More at http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/cave-painting-therianthropes-07902.html

> approximately 43,900 years old

Here’s the picture.

Not all painted at the same time, apparently. One part of the image dates to 44,400±500 years and another part to 35,700±600 years. Bleedin’ old in both cases.

mollwollfumble said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Interesting.

How old are the oldest Australian cave paintings or rock art?

Aboriginal artwork in the Kimberley could be among oldest in the world, scientists say

In Australia, dating has been relatively limited, but dates of between 13,000 to 15,000 years old have been recorded in Queensland, and up to 28,000 years in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

Given that Aboriginal people are believed to have arrived in northern Australia up to 50,000 years ago, Professor Veth said there was potential for older dates to emerge.

more…

There’s a world of difference between the dating of oldest aboriginal engravings and oldest aboriginal paintings.

The surviving engravings are much older, consisting initially of parallel grooves in rock, and are a devil to date accurately because there’s no new material there to date.

As for oldest aboriginal paintings – it was standard practice for every rock art painting to be maintained on a yearly (or near yearly) basis by painting over the old design. The overpainting slowly, over hundreds of years, changed the appearance markedly. So on the one hand it could be said that all surviving aboriginal paintings are less than 200 years old, the date at which overpainting was discontinued.

On the other hand, the tradition of painting in a particular location can be dated more accurately, and almost certainly dates way way back to the arrival of the first Homo sapiens. I’m being careful here because, with reference to the Pintubi-1 and Cow Swamp skulls, I’m not yet ruling out separate waves of colonisation from non-sapiens and sapiens species.

> https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/signs-of-modern-human-cognition-were-found-in-an-indonesian-cave

Anyway, back to Indonesia,

> Imagining things that do not exist in nature and weaving them into narratives are unique signatures of the human psyche.

Unique?

> At 44,000 years of age, they are the oldest known cave paintings made by modern humans.

Nice. But see comment above about maintenance.

> long-distance Stone Age trade in natural pigments as far back as 300,000 years ago. The earliest evidence of cave art is a 64,000-year-old hand stencil made by a Neandertal in the Maltravieso Cave in Cáceres, Spain. In Europe, there are also many examples of more elaborate representational cave art with literal depictions of animals and humans. Such representations of animals characterize the 35,000- to 30,000-year-old Chauvet Cave paintings in southern France, those of a similar age that were found in the Coliboaia Cave in Romania and the famous 20,000-year-old Lascaux Cave images.

> Sulawesi is a particularly rich site for ancient art. More than 240 caves with wall paintings have been identified on the island. The researchers who announced the recent discovery previously described a 35,000-year-old cave painting of a babirusa. The cave containing the earliest ancient art they have now described is called Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4. First discovered in 2017, it features a 15-foot-wide wall with monochromatic red ochre drawings.

More at http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/cave-painting-therianthropes-07902.html

> approximately 43,900 years old

Here’s the picture.

Not all painted at the same time, apparently. One part of the image dates to 44,400±500 years and another part to 35,700±600 years. Bleedin’ old in both cases.

Painted art is one thing. Tools are another form of art. Carved figures yet another form of art.
Some old tools are knapped, some are pecked, some have ground edges and faces.