A hand outlined in sprayed paint
In the cave of Liang Metanduno on the island of Muna, an Indonesian-Australian team found a hand stencil: someone held a hand against the wall and sprayed paint around it. What survives is a patch of 14 × 10 cm. One fingertip seems to have been artificially narrowed – a variant so far known only from Sulawesi.
A clock in the crust
Tiny crusts of calcite grew over the paint. Water carries traces of uranium into them, but hardly any thorium. The uranium slowly decays into thorium, and the ratio gives the age of the crust: 71,600 years, give or take 3,800. So the paint beneath is at least 67,800 years old.
The oldest dated cave art
All minimum ages. The previous record from Spain is attributed to Neanderthals, and its dating is disputed. The oldest earlier date from Sulawesi (2024) comes from the same team.
Who painted it – and where were they going?
Which human species made the stencil cannot be determined; earlier kinds of humans also lived on Sulawesi. The team attributes it to Homo sapiens because of its elaborate style and because it fits our species' arrival. That supports the idea that the first Australians arrived by sea via Sulawesi 50,000 to 65,000 years ago.