Leang-Leang

The Maros-Pangkep karst holds hundreds of caves with rock art, known since Dutch surveys in the 1950s and long assumed to be a few thousand years old until uranium-series dating from 2014 onwards produced results that upended the chronology: hand stencils and a painted babirusa at Leang Timpuseng returned minimum ages around thirty-five to forty thousand years, and later work at Leang Bulu' Sipong and Leang Karampuang pushed a hunting scene and a narrative panel past forty-four and then fifty thousand - among the oldest known figurative art anywhere. The Leang-Leang park near Bantimurung opens two caves, Petta Kere and Pettae, with stencils and a pig figure, in a landscape of karst towers. The most significant caves are restricted and not part of the ordinary visit.

History

The caves have long been known and used by local people; Dutch archaeologists began digging at nearby caves in the 1950s, and the British archaeologist Ian Glover first examined Pettakare cave in 1973. Uranium-series dating in 2011 put the hand stencils and animal painting at between 35,000 and 40,000 years old, and some of the artworks in the Maros caves have since been dated to around 51,200 years ago (Wikipedia, Caves in the Maros-Pangkep karst).

What you'll find

• Hand stencils and a pig figure - the accessible panels at Petta Kere and Pettae.
• A rewritten chronology - dating that made this some of the oldest known art.
• Karst tower landscape - the limestone pinnacles of the Maros-Pangkep field.
• Restricted caves nearby - the most significant panels are closed to visitors.

When to go

May to September. Half a day.

Practical notes

The famous dated panels are largely in closed caves - what is open is more modest. Paintings are faded and exfoliating, a documented and worsening problem. It is hot with little shade.

Nearby

Bantimurung is next door; Rammang-Rammang is north; Makassar is south.

Key facts