Ancient handprints suggest humans were thinking symbolically thousands of years earlier than science taught

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Texas archaeologists uncover ancient king’s tomb in Belize

Texas archaeologists Arlen Chase and Diane Chase recently uncovered the 4th-century tomb of Te’ K’ab Chaak, the earliest ruler of Caracol, a major Mayan city in Belize.(Source: Caracol Archaeological Project;University of Houston)

Researchers recently identified Indonesian cave art dating back about 68,000 years — a breakthrough discovery that marks one of the earliest known expressions of human creativity.

The rock art was found in a cave on the island of Sulawesi, atropical islandin central Indonesia, northeast of Java and Bali.

Pictures of the discovery show reddish-brown handprints — with some elongated or slightly pointed fingerprints on the cave wall.

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The prints were created by blowing pigment over hands pressed against cave walls, with some fingertips intentionally modified.

The cave art, the researchers said, is the “oldestarchaeological evidencerevealed so far for the presence of our species” in the Wallacea region of Indonesia.The findings were published last week in the journal Nature.

Researcher looking at rock art next to image of cave art

Researchers say newly dated cave art from Indonesia could represent some of the oldest known evidence of early human creativity.(Maxime Aubert via AP)

Study author Maxime Aubert, an archaeologist at Griffith University in Australia, told The Associated Press the stencils may be evidence of a complexrock art traditionshared across different cultures.

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Researchers still aren’t sure what type of humans made the prints.

One possibility could be the Denisovans, an extinct group of early humans who lived in the region and may have interacted with Homo sapiens.

“For us, this discovery is not the end of the story.It is an invitation to keep looking.”

The prints could also have been made by modern humans whose ancestorstraveled from Africathrough the Middle East and into Indonesia.

Researchers said they plan to continue exploring the area for even older examples of ancient art.

Researchers found the ancient cave art on Sulawesi, an island in central Indonesia northeast of Java and Bali.(Ahdi Agus Oktaviana/Maxime Aubert via AP)

The discoverycomes as researchers uncover increasingly older evidence of early human innovation.