The World's First Artwork Was Born in Sulawesi, Not Europe
This 40,000-year-old handprint image on the wall of a cave in Maros, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, proves that Indonesia was the cradle of the world's fi
The World's First Artwork Was Born in Sulawesi, Not Europe
This 40,000-year-old handprint image on the wall of a cave in Maros, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, proves that Indonesia was the cradle of the world's first works of art and not in Europe, as has long been believed. In addition to the palm painting, an image of a deer pig, an animal that only exists on the mainland of Sulawesi, was also found in the same cave. The painting is about 35,000 years old. The findings were published in the October 9, 2014 issue of the journal Nature, by Indonesian and Australian researchers. According to the scientists, their findings challenge two theories about human artistic expression. The first theory is that art originated in Western Europe, because ancient cave paintings were only found in that region. Second, about whether art developed independently but continuously in various places in the world or was first brought by Homo sapiens to leave Africa and spread throughout the world. "Europeans can no longer claim to be the first to develop an abstrac…
