Concern: The oldest works of art in the world have started to fade

A team of researchers analyzed the world’s first rock art and concluded that the same are running out at an alarming rate. The experts published the results of the study they carried out on the oldest creations of mankind and alarmed the entire international scientific community.

According to research, published May 13 in the journal Scientific Reports, much of the world’s oldest rock art found in Indonesia and that includes the most primitive hand-drawn stencil known, is degenerating at an alarming rate due to the climate change.

The Indonesian islands of Celebes and BorneoThey are home to rock art over 45,000 years old. These paintings include depictions of animals, mixed figures of humans and animals, hand-drawn stencils in red and purple pigments, and oldest known narrative scene in prehistoric art.

The study authors said that since the 1950s, archaeologists report that ancient paintings, which have managed to survive for tens of thousands of years, started to “blister and peel the cave walls”.

The deterioration can be observed in the cave of Leang tedongnge, located in the south of the island of Sulawesi in the region of Maros-Pangkep. There, researchers discovered the oldest known rock art painting showing a warty pig at least 45,500 years old.

The Maros-Pangkep region is home to approximately 300 deposits different from rock art made on limestone. “Indonesian rock paintings are among the earliest evidence that we have of people living on these islands. Tragically, in almost all of the new deposits found in this region, this primitive art is in a state of disrepair“Warned the scientists.

But since the reasons for the degradation of the rock art were not yet clear, the team of researchers decided to continue with analysis of 11 other archaeological sites of the region dating from 20,000 to 40,000 years ago.

Scientists used a variety of techniques to conduct the study, including powerful microscopes, chemical analyzes, and crystal identification. As a result, they found calcium sulfate and sodium chloride in rocks at three archaeological sites, as well as high levels of sulfur at all 11 sites. Experts concluded that the various salt deposits in the caves are responsible for the deterioration of the paintings.

The researchers explained that humidity and high temperatures these are the ones that promote the formation of salt crystals. The process begins when the salt is carried by water through the air, and once the water evaporates, the salt remains as a deposit on or under the surface of the rock. Salt deposits expand and contract as the surrounding environment heats up and cools down causing repetitive stress on the stone.

Some salt deposits can expand up to three times or more their original size when heated. This repeated stress causes the rock to crack and detach..

The results suggest that for at least four centuries, the rock art of Maros-Pangkep is deteriorating more and more, and over the past 40 years, this erosion has accelerated rapidly due to climate change caused by humans.

“Australasia Its atmosphere is incredibly active, fueled by strong ocean currents, seasonal trade winds, and a reservoir of warm ocean water. However, some of its rock art managed to survive so far tens of thousands of years through great episodes of climatic variation, from the cold of the last ice age to the onset of the current monsoon, ”said the study’s authors.

“But climate change it magnifies climatic extremes. Higher ambient temperatures and more severe and frequent extreme weather events accelerate changes in temperature and humidity that induce salt formation“, Said the experts.

The authors of the research found that the increasing frequency and severity of droughts caused by the climate cycle of The boy, added to the moisture build-up from monsoon rains in neighboring areas, provides ideal conditions for evaporation, salt formation and the erosion of cave surfaces that house ancient art.

Scientists have called on authorities to carry out more conservation, monitoring and research work on these archaeological sites. “Ancient rock art from Indonesia it is located in a dynamic tropical environment which makes it vulnerable to the destructive effects of climate change, which adds a unique urgency to this request for a more in-depth investigation, ”they concluded.

THE NATION