This 67,800-year-old hand stencil is the world's oldest human-made art

"About 67,800 years ago, someone stood in the darkness of Liang Metanduno and placed their hand flat against the limestone wall. They, or maybe a friend, then blew a mixture of pigment and water onto the wall, covering and surrounding their hand. When they pulled their hand carefully away from the rock, careful not to disturb the still-wet paint, they left behind a crisp outline of their palm and fingers, haloed by a cloud of deep red."

"On a tiny island just off the coast of Sulawesi (a much larger island in Indonesia), a cave wall bears the stenciled outline of a person's hand-and it's at least 67,800 years old, according to a recent study. The hand stencil is now the world's oldest work of art (at least until archaeologists find something even older), as well as the oldest evidence of our species on any of the islands that stretch between continental Asia and Australia."

"The result is basically the negative of a handprint, and it's a visceral, tangible link to the past. Someone once laid their hand on the cave wall right here, and you can still see its outline like a lingering ghost, reaching out from the other side of the rock. If you weren't worried about damaging the already faded and fragile image, you could lay your hand in the same spot and meet them halfway."

On a small island off Sulawesi, a stenciled hand on a limestone cave wall dates to at least 67,800 years ago. The hand was made by placing a palm flat against the wall and blowing a pigment-and-water mixture around it, leaving a negative handprint haloed by deep red. Surveys of 44 rock-art sites across Sulawesi and nearby islands identified 14 previously undocumented sites and dated 11 individual artworks in eight caves. The handprint constitutes the oldest known surviving rock art and the earliest direct evidence of human presence on islands between continental Asia and Australia.

Read at Ars Technica