Rock art from at least 67,800 years ago in Sulawesi

[alanw]

Rock art from at least 67,800 years ago in Sulawesi - Nature

A hand stencil painted on a cave wall on a small island off the coast of Sulawesi more than 67,800 years ago suggests a very early occupation of Wallacea.

www.nature.com

Also

Oldest cave painting could rewrite origins of human creativity

A stencilled outline of a hand found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is the world's oldest known cave painting, researchers say.

www.bbc.co.uk

Humanity’s oldest known cave art has been discovered in Sulawesi

People were creating cave art in Indonesia 67,800 years ago – before modern humans reached Australia.

theconversation.com

 

[mrodoc]

I am beginning to think that humanity has come a long way very very slowly considering the skills we had so far back in time. I had always considered it would take time whilst we poisoned ourselves experimenting with food stuffs, learning some basic biological facts eg regarding reproduction but It seems to me we must have been knocked back badly at some points along the way consider the acceleration in the last 4 centuries or so. Some of the animal kingdom seemed to acquired basic skills along the way but haven't progressed as fast.

 

[Lankyman]

I am beginning to think that humanity has come a long way very very slowly considering the skills we had so far back in time. I had always considered it would take time whilst we poisoned ourselves experimenting with food stuffs, learning some basic biological facts eg regarding reproduction but It seems to me we must have been knocked back badly at some points along the way consider the acceleration in the last 4 centuries or so. Some of the animal kingdom seemed to acquired basic skills along the way but haven't progressed as fast.

I wonder if the acceleration in our recent 'progress' is down to improvements in medical science (and science in general)? Once western society was free from the shackles of the established churches then we were able to explore how things actually work. People could live long and productive lives. Sadly, it would seem a lot of effort goes into inventing ways to kill other people.

 

[ChrisJC]

I also think it's down to having a society in which some people could be freed from the need to spend their entire lives securing enough food to survive. As soon as we get to medieval Europe, we've got folk who could spent their entire lives investigating stuff. Like Newton or Brahe and so on. We had positive feedback after a while as the discoveries made lives easier, so more people could afford to invest their time in making lives better (or better guns). We now bear the fruit of that as very few of us spend any time sourcing food.

What the future holds however...

Chris.