This is the world's oldest known painting of an animal

Inside a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, archaeologist have found the oldest known painting of an animal. It appears to be a warty pig. Dated at 45,000 years-old by Griffith University and Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional, the 187cm by 110cm painting was made using red ochre pigment. From CNN:

These latest finds in Indonesia have challenged a long-standing belief that artistic expression — and the cognitive leap that may have accompanied it — began in Europe. The cave paintings in Indonesia are shedding new light on the early story of humanity.

Study coauthor Maxime Aubert, an archaeologist and associate professor at Griffith University in Australia who specializes in the dating of rock art, said that view was "Eurocentric."

It's now thought that the capability to create figurative art — that references the real world — either emerged before Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa and headed for Europe and Asia more than 60,000 years ago or that it emerged more than once as humans spread around the globe.

More here: "World's oldest cave art discovered in Indonesia" (Griffith University)

image: GriffithNews