The painting in Borneo, perhaps depicting a native type of wild livestock.

(AFP)Tokyo, Japan: A painting of an animal in an Indonesian cavern dates from at least 40,000 years earlier, making it the world's oldest piece of figurative art, new research study has shown.The painting in Borneo, potentially portraying a native type of wild livestock, is amongst countless art work discovered years earlier in the remote region.But it was just using innovation called uranium series analysis that researchers have actually finally been able to exercise just when they were painted.The discovery contributes to a growing body of proof that cave painting did not emerge only in Europe, as was once believed.

We can see that figurative art established and progressed basically at the same time in Asia and in Europe, scientist Maxime Aubert informed AFP.In 2014, scientists dated figurative art on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi to 35,000 years ago, however some of the paintings analyzed by Aubert and his group in nearby Borneo were produced a minimum of 5,000 years earlier.Aubert, an associate teacher at Australia's Griffith University, worked with a group in remote and unattainable caves in the East Kalimantan area of Borneo to date the paintings.The team, whose research was released in the journal Nature on Wednesday, took a look at several layers of art work painted on top of each other.The bottom-most and earliest layer featured paintings of animals, mainly a local kind of cattle, along with hand stencils in a reddish colour.On top of those artworks were hand stencils in a mulberry colour organized in patterns and embellished with lines and dots, as well as small stick-like human figures in the same colour.The last layer included people, boats and geometric designs.'An intimate window'Aubert and his team utilized a technique called uranium series dating, which involves analysing layers of the mineral calcite that formed on top of the painting throughout the years, as well as the product below the art.They removed samples smaller than one centimetre (half an inch) across from the artworks and found one painting of an animal had been produced at least 40,000 years ago, and possibly almost 52,000 years ago.

To our knowledge, the big animal painting is the earliest figurative rock art image in the world, the team's research study said.The painting is in reality among the earliest-known representations of any kind of an animal, dating from a similar period to mammoth-ivory figurines found in Germany, the study added.For several years, cavern art was thought to have actually emerged from Europe, where famed pieces have been discovered and dated in Spain, Italy and France.But the Indonesian paintings challenge that theory.

It now appears that two early cavern art provinces developed at a similar time in remote corners of Palaeolithic Eurasia: one in Europe and one in Indonesia, at the opposite end of this ice age world, stated Adam Brum, an archeologist involved in the research study, in a news release provided by Griffith University.The second layer of art work dates to around 20,000 years ago, and suggests an interesting development in the artwork of the age.

Around 20,000 years earlier, painting ends up being of the human world, not the animal world.

We see the very same thing in Europe at basically the exact same time, Aubert informed AFP.He strategies to carry out further testing of other artwork in Indonesia, along with pieces in Australia, and stated he felt a personal connection to the past when examining the paintings.

It's incredible to see that.

It's an intimate window into the past.

(Except for the headline, this story has actually not been modified by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)