Leang Bulu Sipong 4 Rock Art
Leang Bulu Sipong · Bulu Sipong 4 · Maros-Pangkep Rock Art · Sulawesi Warty Pig
Late Pleistocene (43.9 ka)·Early modern humans of Wallacea (pre-Austronesian)·🇮🇩 South Sulawesi, Maros-Pangkep Karst, Indonesia
About
About Leang Bulu Sipong 4 Rock Art
Karst tower cave in the Maros-Pangkep limestone preserving the world's oldest securely dated figurative art at 43,900 BCE calibrated. A 4.5-m hunting tableau shows 6 therianthropes (human-animal hybrids with bird/snout heads and tails) wielding spears and ropes pursuing small Sulawesi warty pigs (Sus celebensis) and dwarf buffalo anoa, executed in mulberry-red hematite with profile animal naturalism. Uranium-series on overlying flowstone crusts gave minimum ages 43.9 ka (pig) and 35.1 ka (therianthropes), predating Lascaux/Chauvet and demonstrating parallel symbolic evolution in Island SE Asia before western Europe.
Why it mattersOldest dated figurative art overturning Europe-centric Palaeolithic art origins and proving early Wallacean symbolic capacity concurrent with African MSA.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Whether therianthropes depict shamanic trance or myth character
- 02How pigment survived humid tropics under flowstone
Theories
- 01Hunting magic tableau for Suas celebensis drives
- 02Mythic narrative proto-storytelling preserving oral tradition
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.43,900 BCE minimum age (Aubert U-series)
- Period
- Late Pleistocene (43.9 ka)
- Culture
- Early modern humans of Wallacea (pre-Austronesian)
- Builders
- Pleistocene foragers crossing Wallacea to Sahul
- Purpose
- Hunting shrine and narrative mythological panel marking karst sanctuary
- Abandoned
- With flowstone sealing c.35 ka; karst used to present by Bugis
- Rediscovered
- 2017 Maros team R. Brumm discovers panel
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
43,900 BCE
Pig figure painted (U-series minimum 43.9 ka)
35,100 BCE
Flowstone seals therianthrope layer
2019
Nature publication claims oldest figurative art
On the ground
Structures & features
5.0400° S · 119.6900° E · 60 m · 3 mapped features
Hunting Scene Panel
panel4.5-m therianthrope hunters with warty pigs and anoa
5.0402° S · 119.6905° EFlowstone Dating Crust
crustCalcite layer over pig giving 43.9 ka minimum age
5.0400° S · 119.6902° EHand Stencil Ledge
stencil clusterAdjacent wall with 2 hand stencils below hunting panel
5.0398° S · 119.6908° E
Gallery