The Chicago Council on Science and Technology, the Leakey Foundation, and the Field Museum present a lecture with Adam Brumm, professor of archaeology and founding member of the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University.
In the 1950s, the discovery of prehistoric rock art was reported for the first time on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. These images were found in limestone caves in the karst hills of Maros-Pangkep. At the time, it was believed this art had been left by early Neolithic farmers, making them about 4,000 years old. However, in 2014, an Australian-Indonesian team dated the Maros-Pangkep art for the first time using a uranium-series analysis of natural mineral coatings that had formed on some of the images. The earliest dated image yielded a minimum age of 40,000 years, making it compatible with cave art in Spain, the oldest known art in the world at the time. The Sulawesi art therefore challenged the long-accepted story that the birthplace of human art and culture had been in Europe. The earliest painting, with a minimum age of 51, 200 years, is a scene portraying human-like figures interacting with a pig. It is the oldest cave art attributed to humans and the earliest known examples of visual storytelling in the world, providing crucial insights into the development of human cognition.
Event Details
Free
Date: Saturday, May 31, 2025
Time: 2 pm to 3 pm, central
Location: Montgomery Ward Hall 1, Field Museum
and Virtually online via Zoom
Pre-registration required. Please fill out the form by clicking the registration button above to reserve your spot for this event. Pre-registered guests receive free basic admission to the Field Museum.
This program will be presented both virtually and onsite at the Field Museum.
