26.000-Year-Old Stone Engravings Discovered

Archaeologists have discovered two miniature stone engravings at an ancient site in Indonesia. One is of a dwarf buffalo and the other is interpreted as either a sun, star or eye.

The amazing thing about this discovery is that it dates back to 26,000 years ago, making this piece of Ice Age art the first of its kind in the region.


They were discovered in 2018 during excavations at the Sulawesi cave site of Leang Bulu Bettue and as you can see, initially the art was very difficult to make out. All we can make out are a few lines that could easily be natural.


But in lab conditions and using directing lighting, the figure of a dwarf buffalo, also known as an Anoa, came to life. Using a small torch, light and shadow, finer marks in the stone were seen. The experts saw a muzzle, nostril, eye, cheek and two straight horns.


The other piece of miniature stone eye is what some think is a sun burst, but this is open to debate. We don’t know when people first depicted the sun in works of art and this new find could be the world’s oldest example. 


Watch the video to find out more about these important ancient discoveries and to see them in close-up detail.


All images are taken from Google Images and the below sources for educational purposes only.

Matt Sibson
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