Archaeologists have found one of the world's oldest "pigs" on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi — a hand-painted wild boar on cave paintings that is at least 45,500 years old.
This Sulawesi "warthog/wild boar" measures 136 x 54 centimeters, about the size of a small sofa cushion, painted with dark red dye. Next to the pig are two clear handprints, most likely left by the artist who painted the ancient boar mural, his confident "signature." Next to this wild boar there are paintings of two other faded wild boars, so they may be part of a very large scene.
The cave where the mural was found is very difficult to find, the nearest road is an hour's walk away, and it's still in a remote valley surrounded by steep limestone cliffs. To make matters worse, the cave is only accessible for a fraction of the year due to the flooding of the rainy season.
The pig was discovered in 2017 by an archaeology graduate student and subsequently protected and studied by a professional archaeological team. It wasn't made public until last week.
Study co-author Adam Brumm said: "The pig appears to be watching a fight or social interaction between two other warthogs. ”
"The people who make it are completely modern, just like us, and they have all the power and tools to complete any painting they like."
The warthog is one of the oldest prey of mankind and has been hunted for tens of thousands of years. They appear in many other cave paintings, especially during the Ice Age. Based on calculating the age of the calcite deposits formed at the tops of these paintings, it is deduced that this "Wild Boar View Bucket Map" is at least 45,500 years old, and may even be older.
This ancient wild boar may have been part of a larger scene, but other cave paintings faded.
And on this island also found the world's second oldest cave painting, at least 43,900 years old, depicting a group of humans and animals (guess what animals?). Mixed graphics of hunting mammals.
Much can be gained from such cave paintings, especially knowledge about human migration. Anthropologists already know that Chi arrived in Australia as early as 65,000 years ago, but to get there they would have to cross the Indian Nissili Islands. Although the team believes the artwork was made by Homo sapiens, they also don't line up to be made by related species that have become extinct, such as Denisovans.
The researchers are currently working on extracting DNA from saliva residues that they believe may have been present in the painting, because the handprint is most likely a wild painter who sprays paint with paint in his mouth.
Of course, as a pet master, I am more concerned about what is the animal hunting with humans in the 43900 mural? If it is a dog, then the history of human domestication of dogs will jump directly from the current 14,000 years to 43,900 years!
What do you think the animals in that mysterious mural would be?