67,800-year-old hand stencil in Indonesian cave becomes oldest known rock art

Exam-focused facts from the 26 January 2026 current affairs briefing.

Key facts

A red hand stencil in Liang Metanduno cave on Muna Island, Sulawesi, Indonesia, is dated to at least 67,800 years ago, making it the oldest rock art discovered.
Indonesian and Australian archaeologists used uranium-thorium laser analysis of cave popcorn calcite to determine the minimum age.
The stencil is over 1,000 years older than Neanderthal-attributed hand stencils in a Spanish cave and more than 15,000 years older than previous Sulawesi art found by the same team.
The cave shows repeated use for rock art, with some works painted over up to 35,000 years later.
The discovery supports the northern migration route for Homo sapiens from Asia through Sulawesi to Papua New Guinea and into the ancient supercontinent Sahul that included Australia.