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In a limestone cave on Muna Island in southeastern Indonesia, a faint set of markings on stone has shifted quietly through academic circles and into record books. The surface is not dramatic at first glance, just weathered rock with pigment pressed into it in a way that only becomes clear when the light catches it from the right angle. What sits there is a hand stencil, formed tens of thousands of years ago, now placed at the centre of an argument about how early humans were already thinking in abstract terms.
Ancient hand stencils in Liang Metanduno cave reveal early human symbolic behaviour
The cave lies within a wider limestone landscape where erosion has done most of the shaping work. Inside, the markings are scattered rather than arranged, with the hand stencil drawing the most attention because of its age and preservation. Liang Metanduno cave, on Muna Island, has become a reference point in discussions about early symbolic behaviour in Southeast Asia, not because it looks spectacular today, but because of what it preserves in faint mineral traces.Across Sulawesi and nearby islands, similar sites have been recorded over the years, many of them studied by teams connected with the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) and international partners. The broader region has slowly revealed a pattern of early human presence expressed through rock surfaces that were used long before writing or settled life.
Inside the 67,800-year timeline of rock art in Liang Metanduno cave, Indonesia
Pinning down the age of pigment trapped in stone is less straightforward than it sounds. The hand stencil from Liang Metanduno cave was not dated directly in a single step. Instead, layers of mineral growth over and around the pigment were analysed, building a timeline backwards. That work, led in part by archaeometry specialists including Dr Adhi Agus Oktaviana, involved repeated sampling and cross-checking across different cave surfaces.Much of the technical refinement came through collaboration with researchers at Griffith University, where methods for dating rock art deposits have been tested and adjusted over many years. The figure that emerged, at least 67,800 years, places the stencil deep into the Pleistocene period, long before agriculture or permanent settlement appeared in the region.The result sits in a category that is still debated in parts of archaeology, not because the measurements are weak, but because findings of this age remain relatively rare and difficult to compare across sites.
How Indonesian and international teams pieced together early cave art in Sulawesi
Work on caves across Sulawesi did not happen in a straight line. Early surveys began more than a decade ago, initially focusing on different parts of the island before shifting towards the southeastern peninsula and nearby islands such as Muna. Field teams moved between dense forest, karst formations, and unstable cave systems where access was often limited by weather and terrain rather than planning.Researchers involved in the project included Adam Brumm and Maxime Aubert, alongside Indonesian colleagues such as Adhi Agus Oktaviana and Budianto Hakim. Their roles ranged from excavation and documentation to laboratory analysis and dating procedures. Much of the progress came in stages, often separated by years rather than months, as funding cycles and technical development dictated the pace.The cave art discoveries in this region have already appeared in peer-reviewed work, including publication in the journal Nature, although earlier findings were younger than the Muna Island stencil. Each new site has added another fragment to a wider picture of how early humans were marking surfaces across this part of the world.
What a hand stencil suggests about early cognition
A hand pressed against stone and outlined in pigment does not record an event in the way written language does. It sits somewhere else, closer to presence than description. The Liang Metanduno stencil is non-figurative, meaning it does not depict animals or human scenes, but instead marks the fact of a hand having been there.In archaeological terms, this kind of marking is often treated as evidence of symbolic thinking. It implies intention beyond immediate survival, a decision to leave a trace that would remain after the person had moved on. Across sites in Sulawesi and nearby regions, both figurative and abstract images have been found, suggesting that early humans in the area were experimenting with different forms of visual expression.There is still uncertainty about whether these markings were part of structured cultural practices or more spontaneous acts. The material record does not offer much context beyond the surfaces themselves.
Protecting cave art in Liang Metanduno Cave, Indonesia
The condition of cave art is often unstable once exposed. Flaking rock, humidity, and human interference all contribute to gradual loss. In Liang Metanduno and other nearby caves, some surfaces have already deteriorated compared with earlier documentation. That has led to increasing interest in digital preservation, including high-resolution recording and 3D modelling of the sites.Teams working in the region have also discussed how access needs to be managed. Remote locations do not always prevent damage, and even occasional visits can alter the micro-environment inside a cave. The balance between study and protection remains unresolved in practical terms, especially when sites are spread across multiple islands and jurisdictions.At one point, reflecting on the broader significance of studying such ancient traces, Dr Adhi Agus Oktaviana said: “Take the time, as often as you can, to read or think about how amazing it is be a human being and the extraordinary journey from our earliest beginnings as upright apes to the astonishing creatures we are today.” Go to Source
