Sulawesi has verso long history of human occupation
174,000 km 2 ) durante Wallacea, verso biogeographically distinct champ of oceanic islands situated between continental Oriente and Australia (Fig. 1). The earliest archaeological evidence is from Talepu, a Middle Pleistocene site mediante the south of the island (1). The Talepu findings comprise sopra situ stone visitatori cheekylovers artifacts associated with fossils of extinct terrestrial megafauna (1). Dated onesto
194 sicuro 118 thousand years (ka), these artifacts may reflect initial colonization by an as-yet unidentified archaic hominin (1). It is not yet indivisible when anatomically modern humans (AMH) first colonized Sulawesi. AMH appear esatto have been established con mainland Southeast Oriente (Sunda) by 73 esatto 63 ka (2). They were also possibly per Pleistocene Australia–New Guinea (Sahul) by 69 onesto 59 ka (3). There is some controversy, however, over the validity of the latter age estimates (4), which are based on recent excavations at Madjedbebe rock shelter sopra northern Australia (3). Mediante some models of early human settlement per Sahul, the large Sulawesi landmass would have been the first “stop” on per series of ocean crossings through northern Wallacea onesto the western tip of New Guinea (5). If the oldest published dates for Madjedbebe (3) are affermis, then Homo sapiens may have reached Sulawesi up preciso 69 esatto 59 ka.
450-km 2 lowland “tower” karst region per the island’s southwestern peninsula (Fig. 1). Some 300 caves and shelters with parietal imagery have now been identified mediante this sezione. Two cave art sites are also known from the Bone karsts
35 km preciso the east (Fig. 1). At least two chronologically distinct styles of rock art are evident on the basis of scientific dating and studies of superimposition. These comprise (i) an initial style phase of well-established Pleistocene antiquity (6, 7) and (ii) a later phase that postdates the arrival of Austronesian-speaking farmers and the onset of the “Neolithic” farming transition around 4 ka (9). Where no sequence of superimposition is evident, the former is distinguishable from the latter durante terms of subject matter, technique, and preservation (6, 10).
Materials and methods
24 esatto 16 ka (18). Evidence for rock art production of a broadly similar antiquity is found per karst areas mediante the adjacent island of Borneo: At Lubang Jeriji Saleh, verso high-level limestone cave in Kalimantan, U-series dating indicates verso minimum age of 40 ka for a figurative painting of per Bornean banteng (Bos javanicus lowi) (19).
U-series isotope dating at Leang Tedongnge
12 mm 2 ) overlaid the red pigment associated with one of the rear feet of pig 1 on the main rock art panel (Fig. 5, Verso sicuro C). This speleothem was too small per size esatto remove with verso rotary tool. Hence, we used a small chisel onesto prise it from the cave wall surface. The recovered sample (LTed3) comprises multiple layers of dense and nonporous calcite. The portion of speleothem we removed from the cave wall extends from its outer surface through the pigment layer and into the underlying rock face (Fig. 5, D and Ancora). After we had removed it from the cave wall, we noted that the portion of the underlying paint layer previously covered by the coralloid speleothem had quale away with the latter-that is, the rock art pigment was affixed sicuro the punto of the sampled speleothem. Mediante the laboratory, we micro-excavated LTed3 mediante arbitrary “spits” that extended over the entire surface of the speleothem. This produced verso series of four aliquots measuring less than 1 mm durante thickness (Fig. 5, F to G). We observed the red pigment layer corresponding puro the artwork across the entire length of the sample. The pigment layer was also clearly visible con the rear portion of the sample that was partially covered by translucent calcite from the cave wall (Fig. 5E). Durante total, we obtained three U-series age determinations for the LTed3 speleothem (Table 1). The resultant dates yielded indistinguishable ages within uncertainties (Table 1). This suggests closed-system conditions for uranium and thorium (Materials and Methods). The results of U-series dating indicate per minimum age of 45.5 ka for the large figurative image of verso suid at Leang Tedongnge (Fig. 3 and Materials and Methods).
