Archaeologists discovered handprint stencils on limestone cave walls on Muna Island, Indonesia, which may date back 67,800 years—older than any found previously in the same region.
On 22 January 2026, Al Jazeera reported that Indonesian and Australian archaeologists discovered the world's oldest cave art on Muna Island, in Indonesia's Sulawesi province. Analysis suggests that handprints on the limestone cave walls could be as old as 67,800 years, making this the oldest cave art ever found.
This discovery was published in the journal "Nature." The artwork consists of light brown hand stencils created by blowing pigment powder over hands pressed against the cave walls, producing shadow-like hand outlines made by prehistoric humans.
An archaeologist from Indonesia's National Research and Innovation Agency revealed he began searching for hand stencils on Muna Island in 2015 and found these prints beneath later paintings depicting a person riding a horse alongside a chicken. Initially, it was difficult to convince fellow researchers that these marks were human hands until they identified clear finger-like features, some deliberately sharpened to a point.
An archaeology expert from Griffith University in Australia, who leads the research team, stated that the handprints have distinctive features unique to Sulawesi art. The fingertips were intentionally shaped to appear pointed. The creator might not have intended to depict just hands but conveyed deeper cultural symbolism, possibly related to ancient humans’ relationship with the animal world.
Historically, the Indonesia, East Timor, and Australia region is one of the oldest sites of human civilization. Australian Aboriginal culture has persisted continuously for at least 60,000 years. Recently, around 1 million ancient rock engravings at Murujuga, northwest Australia, possibly 50,000 years old, were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Source: Al Jazeera