The First Story

From Origin Stories by The Leakey Foundation

August 30, 2024 · 29 min · Episode 83

About this episode

This episode features archaeologist Adam Brumm discussing the discovery of the oldest known visual story in the world, a cave painting in Sulawesi.

Over 50,000 years ago on what is now the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, someone climbed a towering rock formation and painted a mysterious image on a cave ceiling. The painting shows three half-human, half-animal figures and a large wild pig. The image, dated to 51,200 years old, is now the oldest known visual story in the world. In this episode, archaeologist Adam Brumm shares the story of this incredible discovery. Help make more Origin Stories. We're $3,000 short of our quadruple-match fundraising goal and our deadline is August 31! Please donate today and your gift will be quadruple-matched! Click here to 4x your donation ! Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding human origins research and outreach. Links to learn more: Google Arts and Culture virtual tour of the cave art site Narrative cave art in Indonesia by 51,200 years ago Nature, July 2024 Adam Brumm's website Blog post by Adhi Oktaviana Episode produced by Meredith Johnson and Ray Pang Sound design by Ray Pang Edited by Audrey Quinn Theme music by Henry Nagle. Ending credit music by Lee Roservere. Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions. Hungry for more science…

People in this episode

Guest: Adam Brumm

Topics covered

archaeology
cave art
human origins
visual storytelling
Indonesian history

Keywords

cave art
archaeology
Sulawesi
human origins
visual story
Adam Brumm
Leakey Foundation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Leakey Foundation

Books & works: cave painting

Places: Sulawesi