World’s oldest hunting scene shows half-human, half-animal figures—and a sophisticated imagination

Some 44,000 years ago, an artist climbed high onto a cave ledge on an Indonesian island, paintbrush in hand. Perhaps inspired by spiritual visions, the artist sketched a dynamic scene featuring tiny, animal-headed hunters armed with spears cornering formidable wild hogs and small buffaloes. In a new study, researchers argue that the scene's visionary storytelling—which they claim represents the oldest known figurative art made by modern humans—shows that people already had imaginations much like our own at the time of the cave painting, and likely much earlier.

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