Salt erosion decaying world’s oldest cave painting

Ancient art: An archaeologist inspecting the limestone cave painting at Maros. (Below) A file pic showing a ‘deer-pig’ (babirusa) and hand stencil in the Maros karst. — Reuters/AFP

A cave painting on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, believed to be the world’s oldest, is decaying at a rapid pace because of salt erosion likely caused by climate change, archaeologists have warned.

The painting of a group of therianthropes, or humans with animal characteristics, appearing to hunt animals was found in a limestone cave in 2017 and dated to nearly 44, 000 years ago.