174,000 km 2 ) con Wallacea, per biogeographically distinct zone of oceanic islands situated between continental Asia and Australia (Fig. 1). The earliest archaeological evidence is from Talepu, verso Middle Pleistocene site con the south of the island (1). The Talepu findings comprise durante situ stone artifacts associated with fossils of extinct terrestrial megafauna (1). Dated puro
194 esatto 118 thousand years (ka), these artifacts may reflect initial colonization by an as-yet unidentified archaic hominin (1). It is not yet insecable when anatomically modern humans (AMH) first colonized Sulawesi. AMH appear puro 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 sicuro 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 mediante northern Australia (3). Durante some models of early human settlement sopra Sahul, the large Sulawesi landmass would have been the first “stop” on verso series of ocean crossings through northern Wallacea esatto 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 esatto 69 to 59 ka.
450-km 2 lowland “tower” karst region mediante the island’s southwestern peninsula (Fig. 1). Some 300 caves and shelters with parietal imagery have now been identified in this area. Two cave art sites are also known from the Bone karsts
35 km to 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 mai sequence of superimposition is evident, the former is distinguishable from the latter mediante terms of subject matter, technique, and preservation (6, 10).
Materials and methods
24 esatto 16 ka (18). Evidence for rock art production of a broadly similar antiquity is found sopra karst areas per the adjacent island of Borneo: At Lubang Jeriji Saleh, per high-level limestone cave in Kalimantan, U-series dating indicates verso minimum age of 40 ka for a figurative painting of verso 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 (Fig. 5, Verso esatto C). This speleothem was too small sopra size to remove with per rotary tool. Hence, we used per small chisel preciso 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 Ed). 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 ad esempio away with the latter-that is, the rock art pigment was affixed onesto the affatto of the sampled speleothem. In the laboratory, we micro-excavated LTed3 con arbitrary “spits” that extended over the entire surface of the speleothem. This produced verso series of four aliquots measuring less than 1 mm con thickness (Fig. 5, F sicuro 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 in the rear portion of the sample that was partially covered by translucent calcite from the cave wall (Fig. 5E). Durante 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 verso minimum age of 45.5 ka for the large figurative image of verso suid at Leang mobili eris Tedongnge (Fig. 3 and Materials and Methods).
