Scientists are eager to understand when early humans learned to make art, moving from dots and lines to more meaningful representations of themselves and the world around them. These cave drawings help firm up a timeline for the dawn of human creativity.
It’s not yet clear whose hands made the prints. They could be from an ancient human group called Denisovans who lived in the area and may have interacted with our Homo sapiens ancestors before eventually going extinct. Or they may belong to modern humans venturing away from Africa, who could have wandered through the Middle East and Australia around this time. Fine details on the cave art, including the intentionally modified fingertips, point to a human hand.
Other drawings discovered in the same area of the island, including a human figure, a bird and horse-like animals, were found to be created much more recently, some of them about 4,000 years ago.
There’s likely more art to be found on nearby islands that could be even older than the handprints. Future studies may help scientists understand how these artistic traditions spread across the globe and how they’re woven into the fabric of humanity’s early days.
“For us, this discovery is not the end of the story,” Aubert said in an email. “It is an invitation to keep looking.”
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesian-handprints-oldest-cave-art-found-yet-5874441
