Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.
Balai Arkeologi Sulawesi Selatan, Makassar, Indonesia.
Nat Hum Behav. 2020 Jun;4(6):597-602. doi: 10.1038/s41562-020-0837-6. Epub 2020 Mar 16.
The ability to produce recognizable depictions of objects from the natural world-known as figurative art-is unique to Homo sapiens and may be one of the cognitive traits that separates our species from extinct hominin relatives. Surviving examples of Pleistocene figurative art are generally confined to rock art or portable three-dimensional works (such as figurines) and images engraved into the surfaces of small mobile objects. These portable communicative technologies first appear in Europe some 40 thousand years ago (ka) with the arrival of H. sapiens. Conversely, despite H. sapiens having moved into Southeast Asia-Australasia by at least 65 ka, very little evidence for Pleistocene-aged portable art has been identified, leading to uncertainties regarding the cultural behaviour of the earliest H. sapiens in this region. Here, we report the discovery of two small stone 'plaquettes' incised with figurative imagery dating to 26-14 ka from Leang Bulu Bettue, Sulawesi. These new findings, together with the recent discovery of rock art dating to at least 40 ka in this same region, overturns the long-held belief that the first H. sapiens of Southeast Asia-Australasia did not create sophisticated art and further cements the importance of this behaviour for our species' ability to overcome environmental and social challenges.
能够从自然界中创作可识别的物体形象——被称为具象艺术——是智人独有的，可能是将我们的物种与已灭绝的人类近亲区分开来的认知特征之一。幸存的旧石器时代具象艺术一般局限于岩画或可携带的三维作品（如小雕像）以及雕刻在小型可移动物体表面的图像。这些可携带的交流技术最早出现在欧洲，大约在 4 万年前（ka），随着智人的到来。相反，尽管智人至少在 65 千年前就已经进入了东南亚-澳大利亚地区，但很少有证据表明存在旧石器时代的可携带艺术，这导致了人们对该地区最早的智人文化行为的不确定性。在这里，我们报告了在苏拉威西的 Leang Bulu Bettue 发现了两块带有具象图像的小型石刻“ plaque”，其年代可追溯到 26-14 千年前。这些新发现，加上最近在同一地区发现的至少 4 万年前的岩画，推翻了长期以来的观点，即东南亚-澳大利亚地区的第一批智人没有创造复杂的艺术，进一步证明了这种行为对我们物种克服环境和社会挑战的重要性。
