Is this cave painting humanity’s oldest story?

Jovialis

Advisor
Messages
9,249
Reaction score
5,803
Points
113
Ethnic group
Italian
Y-DNA haplogroup
R-PF7566 (R-Y227216)
mtDNA haplogroup
H6a1b7


Indonesian rock art dated to 44,000 years old seems to show mythological figures in a hunting scene.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03826-4

ai2Wekr.jpg
 
Interesting, but not surprising. I'm quite willing to believe that the modern humans who arrived in South-East Asia more than 44,000 years ago already had the capacity for story telling and symbolic representation, since this capacity is found in every culture. The alternative hypothesis, that humans dispersed throughout Eurasia and Sahul without this capacity, and then each region independently developed this capacity later through a process of parallel evolution, seems to me to be less likely.
 

This thread has been viewed 3479 times.

Back
Top