17 Apr 2024 | 12:00 am LT
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NEWS24.CO.ID - Paintings of a number of animals believed to be the oldest in the world were identified in a cave in East Kalimantan.
"It is estimated that it is around 40,000 years old and is currently the oldest figurative work of art known," said one of the researchers, Maxime Aubert, an academic from Griffith University, Australia.
"It is referred to as the oldest, because the dating series for that object uses the uranium series method carried out on calcium carbonate samples," Aubert added at a press conference at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Silvano Hajid reported from BBC News Indonesia.
The oldest rock paintings were found in Jeriji Saleh Hole, including in the Sangkulirang Mangkalihat Karst area in East Kalimantan, at an altitude of 320 meters above sea level.
The works are considered to be the example of the oldest figurative painting, which depicts real objects such as originals and not in abstract forms.
Researchers are not yet sure what animals are painted on the walls of the cave, but they are thought to be bulls which currently also live in the Kalimantan region and in several other regions of Indonesia.
The results of the experts' research have been published in the journal Nature.
The research team revealed that the trip to the site was very difficult, because it was a dense forest and had to climb hills with varying slopes. The researchers found 300 hand stamp and 20 pictures of animals and humans in the cave.
