Oldest Images Made By The Human Hand
In the past 3 years alone there have been record-breaking discoveries regarding the first images created by the human hand.
The oldest known images are those found in caves, known as “cave art”. That doesn’t mean that ancient humans only painted and drew pictures underground but the natural protection that the enclosures created is what has allowed them to survive to be seen today.
In 2017, the oldest known cave art was a small red disk that was painted on a wall inside a rock formation in El Castillo, Spain. The disk was scientifically dated to be at least 41,000 years old.
In 2018 the red disk’s record was shattered when a flake of stone was found in a cave in South Africa bearing human-made marks, made with ocher, that were dated to be roughly 73,000 years old! There is debate however, as to whether these marks are truly the intentional expressions associated with art. The marks are somewhat dismissively referred to as a “doodle”.
A depiction of a hunting scene on a cave wall in Indonesia, took the official lead as the oldest cave art in 2019. Images of the hunting scene, which curiously included human-animal hybrids, were discovered and dated to be at least 44,000 years old. This scene however only briefly held the title of world’s oldest known cave art.
A study published on January 13, 2021, on the American Association for the Advancement of Science website, announced that “figurative cave paintings of Sulawesi warty pigs” were discovered in the same relative area as the cave where the hunting scene was found. One of the pigs was dated, using uranium dating, to be at least 45,500 years old.
To date, this Indonesian cave art of a “warty pig” is the oldest known image created by the human hand.
If you like this story let me know! Give a click on the clapping hands icon at the bottom of the screen ❤
