The deposits have been slowly growing over the hunting mural for at least 90, years, which means the painting itself may be even older than that. That makes the Liang Bulu’sipong 4 mural the oldest record (that we know of) of an actual story. At first glance, it seems to suggest a game drive, in which people flush animals from cover and drive them towards a line of hunters with spears or other weapons. If Aubert and his colleagues are right about that, it means that somebody 44, 10 years ago created a firsthand record of how they made a living.
But the oldest story ever recorded by human hands may be something more than a hunting record. “Some, or all, aspects of this imagery may not pertain to human experiences in the real world,” wrote Aubert and his colleagues. Up close, the tiny hunters don’t look quite human; many of them have strangely elongated faces, more like animal muzzles or snouts. One has a tail, and another appears to have a beak.The figures could represent human hunters clad in skins or masks. Aubert and his colleagues, however, say they look more like therianthropes: human-animal hybrids that show up in cultures around the world, including in (**************************************************************************************************, – year-old paintings in the Lascaux caves of France and a 60, – year-old carved figure from Germany.Whether they’re human, animal, or a bit of both, the hunters are facing prey animals of monstrous or mythological proportions. In real life, an anoa stands about (cm) 4 inches tall, and an Indonesian wild pig stands only (cm) 39. 6 inches) tall. On the wall of Liang Bulu’sipong 4, though, the creatures loom many times larger than the hunters arrayed against them. It looks like a scene out of a legend, not a dry record of another day’s hunting.And And its presence suggests that Liang Bulu’sipong 4 may have been a sacred, or at least important, place to the people who once lived in the area. Archaeologists found no trace of the usual debris of human life — stone tools, discarded bones, and cooking fires — anywhere in the cave or in the much larger chamber beneath it. That’s no wonder: Liang Bulu’Sipong 4 is set in a cliff 23 meters above the valley floor, and one does simply simply walk in.
“Accessing it requires climbing, and this is not an occupation site,” Aubert told Ars. “So people were going in there for another reason.”
The anoa in this image is many times larger than the hunters it’s facing.
Aubert et al.
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The hunters look like human-animal hybrids called therianthropes.
Aubert et al.
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The hunters look like human-animal hybrids called therianthropes.
Aubert et al.
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The hunters look like human-animal hybrids called therianthropes.
Aubert et al.
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The hunters look like human-animal hybrids called therianthropes.
Aubert et al.
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The panel isn’t exactly easy to reach, which suggests that ancient people did not undertake the project lightly.
Aubert et al.
These maps show the location of the panel in Liang Bulu’Sipong 4.
Aubert et al.
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(Listing image by) ****************************************** Aubert et al.
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