Archaeology & Art@archaeologyart
The Hands of Gua Tewet, Indonesia.
Gua Tewet is one of the karst caves in the East Kalimantan region (Borneo, Indonesia). The age of the paintings here isn't measured directly from the pigment itself, but from the calcite crust that's built up over them. This involves analyzing how fast uranium decays into thorium within this crust (uranium-thorium dating). The result: the hands of Gua Tewet are at least 10,000 years old.
These are negative hand stencils. The artist sprayed liquid pigment from a bowl around their hand, blowing it either directly from their mouth or through a hollow bone. The area blocked by the hand stayed bare, revealing its silhouette. There are dots and short dashes on the palms and fingers. I think these look just like tattoo patterns. The hand sizes vary, meaning they belong to different people.
Notice the center of the panel. Thin reddish-brown lines curve upward, forming a branching network. Reinforced by dots and short dashes, this connection gathers at the bottom and branches out toward the hands above - some extensions reach all the way to the palms and fingertips.
According to the French-Indonesian exploration team, this represents a 'tree of life'. The hands are interconnected as if growing from the branches of a tree, likely representing a clan or lineage. Of course, that's just an interpretation.
Over 1,900 negative hand stencils have been found across hundreds of caves throughout the region. Dating at neighboring sites pushes some hand stencils back 40,000 - or even up to 52,000 - years. This puts them in the same era as the cave paintings in Lascaux and Chauvet in France, while some predate them by thousands of years.
The painting tradition in these caves lasted for about 30,000 years, from the middle of the Ice Age until roughly 4,000 years ago.
