WORLD'S OLDEST ART WORK UNCOVERED IN INDONESIA CAVE

An Indonesian cave painting that depicts a prehistoric hunting scene could be the world's oldest figurative artwork dating back nearly 44,000 years, a discovery that points to an advanced artistic culture, according to new research. Spotted two years ago on the island of Sulawesi, the 4.5 metre (13 foot) wide painting features wild animals being chased by half-human hunters wielding what appear to be spears and ropes, said the study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

"This hunting scene is—to our knowledge—currently the oldest pictorial record of storytelling and the earliest figurative artwork in the world," researchers said. "I've never seen anything like this before," Griffith University archaeologist Adam Brumm told Nature. "I mean, we've seen hundreds of rock art sites in this region, but we've never seen anything like a hunting scene," he added. in the latest dated scene, the animals appear to be wild pigs and small buffalo, while the hunters are depicted in reddish-brown colors with human bodies and the heads of animals including birds and reptiles.

"We don't know what it means, but it seems to be about hunting and it seems to maybe have mythological or supernatural connotations," Brumm was quoted as saying. The Sulawesi painting, which is in poor condition, suggests that a highly advanced artistic culture existed some 44,000 years ago, punctuated by folklore, religious myths and spiritual belief, the team said.