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, per Middle Pleistocene site sopra the south of the island (1). The Talepu findings comprise in situ stone artifacts associated with fossils of extinct terrestrial megafauna (1). Dated onesto
194 onesto 118 thousand years (ka), these artifacts may reflect initial colonization by an as-yet unidentified archaic hominin (1). It is not yet un when anatomically modern humans (AMH) first colonized Sulawesi. AMH appear preciso have been established mediante mainland Southeast Oriente (Sunda) by 73 esatto 63 ka (2). They were also possibly per Pleistocene Australia–New Guinea (Sahul) by 69 to 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 con northern Australia (3). Durante some models of early human settlement per Sahul, the large Sulawesi landmass would have been the first “stop” on a 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 puro 69 to 59 ka.
450-km 2 lowland “tower” karst region in the island’s southwestern peninsula (Fig. 1). Some 300 caves and shelters with parietal imagery have now been identified sopra this settore. Two cave art sites are also known from the Bone karsts
35 km esatto 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) verso later phase that postdates the arrival of Austronesian-speaking farmers and the onset of the “Neolithic” farming transition around 4 ka (9). Where in nessun caso sequence of superimposition is evident, the former is distinguishable from the latter con terms of subject matter, technique, and preservation (6, 10).
Materials and methods
24 sicuro 16 ka (18). Evidence for rock art production of verso broadly similar antiquity is found per karst areas in the adjacent island of Borneo: At Lubang Jeriji Saleh, per high-level limestone cave con Kalimantan, U-series dating indicates per minimum age of 40 ka for per 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 xmatch sito di incontri (Fig. 5, Per onesto C). This speleothem was too small mediante size sicuro remove with per rotary tool. Hence, we used per small chisel puro 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 Anche). 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 che razza di away with the latter-that is, the rock art pigment was affixed preciso the segno of the sampled speleothem. Mediante the laboratory, we micro-excavated LTed3 con arbitrary “spits” that extended over the entire surface of the speleothem. This produced per series of four aliquots measuring less than 1 mm mediante thickness (Fig. 5, F esatto G). We observed the red pigment layer corresponding esatto 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). In 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 a minimum age of 45.5 ka for the large figurative image of verso suid at Leang Tedongnge (Fig. 3 and Materials and Methods).