A new study published in Nature reveals that a hand stencil discovered in a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is at least 67,800 years old, making it the oldest securely dated example of cave art attributed to Homo sapiens. This extraordinary discovery challenges long-held assumptions about where symbolic art first emerged and provides new clues about one of humanity's greatest achievements: the first ocean crossings to Australia.

In this video, we explore:

- Why this discovery is rewriting the history of prehistoric art

- How scientists dated the cave paintings using uranium-series analysis

- Why these ancient hand stencils are older than famous European cave art

- What this tells us about the migration of modern humans into Sahul (Ice Age Australia and New Guinea)

- The incredible cognitive abilities required for long-distance sea voyages nearly 70,000 years ago Sources

• Nature (2026) – Rock art from at least 67,800 years ago in Sulawesi

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09968-y

• Science Advances (2021) – Earliest known representational cave art in Indonesia https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abd4648

• Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2025) The age of hand stencils in Maltravieso cave (Extremadura, Spain) established by U-Th dating, and its implications for the early development of art

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X24005194

• Nature (2019): Early human settlement of Sahul was not an accident https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-42946-9

• Nature (2024): Narrative cave art in Indonesia by 51,200 years ago https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07541-7