Cave paintings depicting a babirusa (pig-deer) and hand-prints from Sulawesi, Indonesia, have been dated to between 35,000 and 40,000 years old – as ancient as the oldest cave art found in Europe, if not older, According to Reuters.

The study focused on 14 cave paintings: 12 human hand stencils and two naturalistic animal depictions, one showing an animal called a babirusa, or “pig-deer,” and the other showing what probably is a pig. They were painted in limestone caves near Maros in southern Sulawesi, a large island east of Borneo.

Using a highly precise method to determine the antiquity of the paintings, scientists found the artwork is comparable in age to the oldest-known rock art from Europe – long thought to be the cradle of the early human cultural achievement embodied by cave painting. Archaeologists calculated that a dozen stencils of hands in mulberry red and two detailed drawings of an animal described as a "pig-deer" are between 35,000 to 40,000 years old, based on levels of decay of the element uranium. That puts the art found in Sulawesi, southeast of Borneo, in the same rough time period as drawings found in Spain and a famous cave in France.

The Sulawesi caves’ figurative animals at least 35,000 years old. The babirusa image represents the oldest-known, reliably dated figurative depiction, says Aubert.