Bold claim: ancient hands stamped in Indonesia redefine humanity’s earliest artistic expression and rewrite the map of our deep past.
The limestone caves of Sulawesi have guarded their secrets for tens of thousands of years. In a cave on Muna Island, a faded reddish patch on the wall survived largely unseen until recent research revealed its meaning: part of a human hand pressed to stone and coated with pigment long ago.
The fragment is small—measuring about 14 by 10 centimeters—and shows portions of fingers and a palm. One fingertip looks unusually narrow, perhaps deliberate: the painter may have moved the hand during application or added pigment afterward. This modification gives the hand a claw-like look, a rare variation of a universal human gesture found nowhere else in the world’s ancient cave art.
For a long time, scientists thought Europe held the oldest rock art. New evidence from Southeast Asia has decisively shifted that view.
67,800+ Years by Uranium Series Dating
An international team led by Griffith University, Indonesia’s BRIN agency, and Southern Cross University analyzed mineral layers that formed over the pigment after it was applied. In a peer-reviewed study published in Nature, they used uranium series dating to measure radioactive decay in tiny calcite deposits that accumulated on top of the artwork. The calcite formed about 71,600 years ago (with an uncertainty of roughly 3,800 years), which means the hand stencil beneath is at least 67,800 years old. This surpasses the previous Sulawesi record by more than 16,000 years and beats a contested Neanderthal-associated hand stencil from Spain, dated to a minimum of 66,700 years.
According to Professor Maxime Aubert, the discovery reveals an artistic tradition far older than previously recognized. “Sulawesi was home to one of the world’s richest and longest-standing artistic cultures,” he noted, dating back to at least 67,800 years ago.
The same rock art panel shows repeated visits: another hand stencil nearby has a minimum date of 60,900 years, and a separate pigment layer above it dates to around 21,500 years. Taken together, these layers indicate multiple painting episodes spanning at least 35,000 years, suggesting generations returned to the same site to create art over a period longer than much of written history.
What the Paintings Tell Us About Ancient Beliefs
The hand stencil stands out because its fingers are deliberately narrowed, a design that differs from thousands of other stencils found worldwide. While the exact meaning remains uncertain, researchers speculate it may reflect ideas about the bond between humans and animals. Adam Brumm from Griffith’s Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution commented that the artwork could symbolize a close connection between humans and wildlife, with some early Sulawesi scenes even hinting at part-human, part-animal figures.
The team documented 44 sites across Southeast Sulawesi, including 14 newly identified locations. They dated 11 motifs across eight caves, with most hand stencils dating to the Late Pleistocene. Notable sites include Gua Mbokita, which yielded hand stencils dating to at least 44,700 and 25,900 years, and Gua Anawai, with stencils from 20,100 to 20,400 years ago—placing them near the peak of the last ice age.
Rethinking Migration to Australia
The Sulawesi finding matters for understanding how modern humans moved toward Australia, particularly through Sahul—the submerged landmass joining Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea during periods of lower sea level in the Pleistocene. Reaching Sahul would have required navigating routes across Wallacea, the archipelago between Asia and Sahul.
Two main migration routes are debated: a northern corridor through Sulawesi and the Maluku Islands toward western New Guinea, and a southern route east through Timor and the Lesser Sundas toward northwestern Australia. Evidence along both paths has been limited until now.
Dr. Adhi Agus Oktaviana of BRIN and Griffith University emphasizes that Sulawesi art provides the oldest direct evidence for modern humans along the northern route. He argues this supports the idea that the ancestors of the First Australians were present in Sahul by around 65,000 years ago, aligning with early Australian discoveries like Madjedbebe, where artifacts suggest human presence between roughly 68,700 and 59,300 years ago.
This dating helps fill a major gap in how and when people first reached Sahul, offering a clearer picture of northern migration into Australia.
Reference: Rock art from at least 67,800 years ago in Sulawesi, Oktaviana et al., Nature, January 21, 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09968-y.
