BRIN researcher's quest for world's oldest handprint in Muna begins with curiosity

Indonesia has now officially been awarded the title for the world’s oldest non-figurative cave art. A prehistoric handprint dated to at least 67,800 years old, found in Liang Metanduno cave on Muna Island, Southeast Sulawesi, has recently been recognised as a record-breaker by Guinness World Records (GWR). Behind this achievement, however, lies a long journey of curiosity, perseverance, and laboratory delays caused by the war in Ukraine. The discovery began in 2015 when Dr Adhi was involved in a project to compile Indonesia’s prehistoric cave art. Tasked with studying Muna alongside a team from the Ministry of Education, Culture, and the late expert Pindi Setiawan, he notices that while Liang Metanduno was documented as one of the largest caves with the most prehistoric paintings, no reports mention handprints there. “I was curious why there were no records of handprints in Liang Metanduno,” Dr Adhi recalled. Driven by this curiosity, he explored deeper into the cave where the team initially found three handprints on the ceiling of a large cave collapse boulder. However, they were heavily worn. A small debate arose over the unclear shapes, but Dr Adhi believed them to be ancient human handprints and decided to search further into the cave’s rear. The effort paid off. Along the right-hand wall and ceiling, he discovered a series of handprints covered by coraloid speleothem—a type of cave mineral deposit that forms even, massive layers. This layer held the key to accurate dating. Interestingly, when first discovered in 2015, Dr Adhi had no expectation the handprint would break records. Based on 2014 publications, similar paintings elsewhere typically dated only 17,000 to 20,000 years old. “I thought it might not be older than 40,000 years,” he said.