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Indonesian Cave Art May Be World's Oldest
sciencehabit writes The world's oldest cave art may not lie in Europe but rather halfway around the globe in Indonesia, according to a new study. The images date to around 40,000 years ago, making them a similar age to cave paintings from Western Europe that represent the world's oldest known cave art. The findings suggest that humans were producing figurative art by around 40,000 years ago at opposite ends of the Pleistocene Eurasian world. Further research is needed to investigate whether rock art was an integral part of the cultural repertoire of the first modern human populations to reach Southeast Asia from Africa, or whether these practices developed independently in different regions.
Well. If it was painted by a dog, it would be just 5714.28571429 years old.
I don't think the issue here is the artistic merit of it.
But for humans(*) to have the abstract concepts of representing things in the world around them, the dyes needed to do this, and the desire to actually put this kind of thing on a wall ... well, that's indicating that humans(*) were far more advanced than everybody thinks they were.
If the ability to do the art spread with humans(*), then we learn a little more about how we got here and what we knew.
At a minimum you have to conclude there was some form of culture, shared understanding of concepts, and a desire to communicate and have things a little more durable.
As opposed to the previous notions of cavemen sitting around poking themselves in the eye with sticks and looking all furry and stuff. This might actually suggest that humans were more advanced, and more widespread, than we initially thought.
(*)humans, proto humans, early humans ... whatever, don't care.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.