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A 2026 Associated Press report puts Sulawesi hand stencils at a minimum age of 67,800 years, making them the oldest cave art studied in the records covered here. Their makers have not been identified. That finding is distinct from Spain’s cave paintings, dated to more than 64,800 years ago, and from Sulawesi’s 51,200-year-old scene, known for its storytelling composition.
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What are the world’s oldest cave paintings?
The best-supported answer depends on what counts as a painting. The oldest cave art in the records covered here is a set of hand stencils in Sulawesi, Indonesia: an Associated Press report in 2026 gives them a minimum age of 67,800 years. They are images made by applying pigment around hands, rather than scenes painted with figures and animals.
If “painting” means a figurative scene, the categories become more specific. Spain’s La Pasiega, Maltravieso and Ardales caves contain painted motifs dated to minimum ages older than 64,800 years. A separate panel at Leang Karampuang, Sulawesi, dated to at least 51,200 years, is notable as the oldest known narrative cave painting: human-like figures and a pig are composed so viewers can infer an interaction.
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| Record | Minimum age and source | Image and significance | What the evidence establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sulawesi, Indonesia | At least 67,800 years; Associated Press report, 2026 | Hand stencils; oldest cave art studied in that report | The stencils are at least this old. The artists’ identity is not established. |
| La Pasiega, Maltravieso and Ardales, Spain | Older than 64,800 years; Science study, 2018 | Painted motifs and signs | The dates predate the documented arrival of Homo sapiens in Iberia, making Neanderthal authorship plausible but not proven by dating alone. |
| Leang Karampuang, Sulawesi, Indonesia | At least 51,200 years; Nature study, 2024 | Human-like figures interacting with a pig; oldest known narrative cave painting at publication | The dated panel’s composition supports an inferred action or story. The date does not identify an individual artist. |
| El Castillo, Spain | More than 40,800 years; National Geographic report, 2012 | Oldest red disk reported at the time | A historical benchmark for how the record has changed; it is not the oldest cave art in the newer reports. |
These figures are minimum ages, not precise creation dates. “At least 67,800 years old,” for example, means the art must be that old or older; it does not mean it was made exactly 67,800 years ago.
Were the paintings made before humans existed?
No. “Before human existence” is misleading: Neanderthals were humans, members of the genus Homo. The Spanish dates are striking because they are older than the documented arrival of Homo sapiens in Iberia. That makes Neanderthals plausible makers of the Spanish motifs, but the dates alone do not prove who painted them.
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The 2026 report on Sulawesi’s older hand stencils likewise does not securely identify their makers. The possibilities discussed include an early modern-human population or another archaic human group. The evidence supports an age for the art, not a definitive assignment to a species.
How were the cave paintings dated?
Spain: carbonate crusts over the pigment
The 2018 Science study used uranium-thorium dating on carbonate crusts that formed over pigment at La Pasiega, Maltravieso and Ardales. Because the dated crust lies on top of the painting, its age gives a minimum age for the art underneath: the pigment had to be applied before the crust formed. The study reported minimum ages older than 64,800 years for the Spanish cave art collectively.
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Sulawesi: uranium-series dating
The 2024 Nature study dated the Leang Karampuang panel to a minimum of 51,200 years using uranium-series methods, with newer laser-enabled sampling and imaging approaches described in the Nature record. Its age applies to that panel; it should not be confused with the older hand stencils reported elsewhere in Sulawesi in 2026.
The available account of the 2026 hand-stencil finding gives the minimum age and attribution uncertainty, but does not specify a dating method here. The age should therefore be reported as the AP report states it, without assuming that every Sulawesi result used the same procedure.
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What makes the 51,200-year-old scene a story?
At Leang Karampuang, the panel includes several human-like figures and a pig arranged in a way that supports an inferred interaction. That relationship among figures—not simply the presence of an animal or a human form—is why the 2024 Nature study treated it as narrative imagery and described it as the oldest known cave painting of this kind at publication.
A narrative interpretation is an inference from the composition. It does not tell us exactly what the makers intended, what the scene meant to them, or whether it records a specific event. The careful claim is that the figures are arranged so a viewer can read an action or story.
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Why does the “oldest painting” label keep changing?
New dates can move the record, but so can the definition being used. A hand stencil, a painted sign, an animal image and a multi-figure scene are all cave art, yet they answer different questions about what people made. The 2012 National Geographic report on El Castillo’s red disk, then dated to more than 40,800 years, is a reminder that records are provisional as new sites and dating work come to light.
- Oldest cave art in the records covered here: Sulawesi hand stencils, at least 67,800 years old, according to a 2026 AP report.
- Spanish cave art older than 64,800 years: painted motifs that may be Neanderthal-made, though the dating does not prove their makers’ identity.
- Oldest known narrative cave painting at the 2024 publication: the Leang Karampuang scene, at least 51,200 years old.
These discoveries show that image-making—and, in the case of Leang Karampuang, composition that can be read as an interaction—reaches deep into human prehistory. They do not show art made before humans existed, and they do not yet tell us exactly which human population created the oldest Sulawesi stencils.
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