World

World’s oldest artwork discovered in Indonesian cave

Published

2 years ago

July 3, 2024

World’s oldest artwork discovered in Indonesian cave

The painting was dated using a new technique and suggests Europe was not where cave art first emerged.

Scientists have discovered what they believe to be the world’s oldest artwork – depicting three people gathered around a large red pig – in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

Research published on Wednesday indicates the painting was created some 51,200 years ago.

“This is the oldest evidence of storytelling,” Maxime Aubert, an archaeologist at Australia’s Griffith University and co-author of a new study published in Nature, told the AFP news agency.

Aubert was part of the team that identified the previous record holder, a picture of a warty pig thought to be at least 45,500 years old.

The latest discovery, found inside the Leang Karampuang cave in the Maros-Pangkep region of South Sulawesi, is in poor condition.

It shows three people around a wild pig, measuring 92cm by 38cm (36 inches by 15 inches), in a single shade of dark red pigment. There are other images of pigs in the cave as well.

“The juxtaposition of the figures – how they are positioned in relation to each other – and the manner in which they are interacting – were clearly deliberate, and it conveys an unmistakable sense of action. There is something happening between these figures. A story is being told. Obviously, we don’t know what that story was,” said Griffith University archaeologist Adam Brumm, another of the study’s authors.

Aubert speculated that the paintings were probably made by the first group of humans who moved through Southeast Asia before arriving in Australia about 65,000 years ago.

“It’s probably just a matter of time before we find samples that are older,” Aubert added.

Previously, the first narrative art was thought to have emerged in Europe.

The date given for the Indonesian cave art is “quite provocative” because it is so much older than what has been found elsewhere, including in Europe, said Chris Stringer, an anthropologist at London’s Natural History Museum.

Stringer, who was not involved in the research, said the experienced team’s findings looked sound but needed to be confirmed by further dating.

“In my view, this find reinforces the idea that representational art was first produced in Africa, before 50,000 years ago, and the concept spread as our species spread,” he told AFP.

“If that is true, much new supporting evidence from other areas including Africa has yet to emerge.”

The researchers used a new scientific approach to determine the minimum age of the Leang Karampuang cave painting by using a laser to date a type of crystal called calcium carbonate that formed naturally on top of the painting.

Little is known about the people who created the Sulawesi cave paintings.

“This discovery of very old cave art in Indonesia drives home the point that Europe was not the birthplace of cave art, as had long been assumed. It also suggests that storytelling was a much older part of human history, and the history of art, in particular, than previously recognized,” Brumm said.

“The earliest Sulawesi rock art is not ‘simple’,” Aubert added. “It is quite advanced and shows the mental capacity of people at the time.”

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World

Did the EU bypass Hungary’s veto on Ukraine’s €90 billion loan?

Published

1 hour ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Did the EU bypass Hungary’s veto on Ukraine’s €90 billion loan?

A post on X by European Parliament President Roberta Metsola has triggered a wave of misinformation linked to the EU’s €90 billion support loan to Ukraine, which is designed to help Kyiv meet its general budget and defence needs amid Russia’s ongoing invasion.

Hungary said earlier this week that it would block both the loan — agreed by EU leaders in December — and a new EU sanctions package against Moscow amid a dispute over oil supplies.

Shortly afterwards, Metsola posted on X that she had signed the Ukraine support loan on behalf of the parliament.

She said the funds would be used to maintain essential public services, support Ukraine’s defence, protect shared European security, and anchor Ukraine’s future within Europe.

The announcement triggered a wave of reactions online, with some claiming Hungary’s veto had been ignored, but this is incorrect.

Metsola did sign the loan on behalf of the European Parliament, but that’s only one step in the EU’s legislative process. Her signature does not mean the loan has been definitively implemented.

How the process works

In December, after failing to reach an agreement on using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s war effort, the European Council agreed in principle to provide €90 billion to help Kyiv meet its budgetary and military needs over the next two years.

On 14 January, the European Commission put forward a package of legislative proposals to ensure continued financial support for Ukraine in 2026 and 2027.

These included a proposal to establish a €90 billion Ukraine support loan, amendments to the Ukraine Facility — the EU instrument used to deliver budgetary assistance — and changes to the EU’s multiannual financial framework so the loan could be backed by any unused budgetary “headroom”.

Under EU law, these proposals must be adopted by both the European Parliament and the European Council. Because the loan requires amendments to EU budgetary rules, it ultimately needs unanimous approval from all member states.

Metsola’s signature therefore does not amount to a final decision, nor does it override Hungary’s veto.

The oil dispute behind Hungary’s opposition

Budapest says its objections are linked to a dispute over the Druzhba pipeline, a Soviet-era route that carries Russian oil via Ukraine to Hungary and Slovakia.

According to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), Hungary and Slovakia imported an estimated €137 million worth of Russian crude through the pipeline in January alone, under a temporary EU exemption.

Oil flows reportedly stopped in late January after a Russian air strike that Kyiv says damaged the pipeline’s southern branch in western Ukraine. Hungary disputes this, with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accusing Ukraine of blocking it from being used.

Speaking in Kyiv alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the pipeline had been damaged by Russia, not Kyiv.

He added that repairs were dangerous and could not be carried out quickly without putting Ukrainian servicemen in danger.

Tensions escalated further after reports that Ukraine struck a Russian pumping station serving the pipeline. Orbán responded by ordering increased security at critical infrastructure sites, claiming Kyiv was attempting to disrupt Hungary’s energy system.

World

Video: Pakistan Launches Airstrikes on Afghanistan

Published

11 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Video: Pakistan Launches Airstrikes on Afghanistan

new video loaded: Pakistan Launches Airstrikes on Afghanistan

Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan escalated on Friday as the two countries clashed.

By Monika Cvorak

February 27, 2026

Denmark’s Prime Minister Calls For a Snap Parliamentary Election