A team of archaeologists led by Griffith University has discovered a cave painting in Indonesia that is at least 44,000 years old and which portrays a group of part-human, part-animal figures – ‘therianthropes’ – hunting large mammals with spears or ropes, casting new light on the origin of modern human cognition.
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Earliest hunting scene in Sulawesi, Indonesia
| Title | Hunting scene |
| Artist(s) | Unrecorded artist |
| Dates | c. 42,000 B.C.E. |
| Places | Asia / Southeast Asia / Indonesia |
| Period, Culture, Style | Prehistoric / Paleolithic |
| Artwork Type | Rock art / Painting |
| Material | Pigment |
| Technique |
Cite this page as: Griffith University, "Earliest hunting scene in Sulawesi, Indonesia," in Smarthistory, September 13, 2024, accessed December 31, 2025, https://smarthistory.org/earliest-hunting-scene-in-sulawesi-indonesia/.
