Researchers found the oldest signs of cave art lining the rock walls of Indonesia’s island of Sulawesi. The stenciled handprints were drawn onto the cave walls nearly 67,800 years ago, making the discovery almost 15,000 years older than the previous oldest example of human art found in caves. Researchers believe this can provide more insight into early humans’ creativity and help pin down the history of how art advanced. “For us, this discovery is not the end of the story. It is an invitation to keep looking,” Griffith University’s Maxime Aubert, an archaeologist and the author of the study, told the Associated Press. There is still some contention in the published study about which early human was responsible for creating the art. Some researchers believe that Denisovans were responsible for the cave art, a genetically distinct and now-extinct group closely related to humans and Neanderthals. Another theory holds that Homo Sapiens, or modern humans, migrating eastward from Africa, were the creators of the art.
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