The world's oldest cave paintings, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, are under threat as heat and smoke from the country's worst wildfires in more than a decade risk accelerating the deterioration of artworks more than 67,000 years old, researchers told Reuters.
Source: Reuters, Oct 23, 2026
Indonesia is battling its most intense forest and land fires since 2015 as a severe El Nino drives up temperatures and reduces rainfall, leaving forest and peatland vulnerable to fire, Reuters reported. Sumatra and Borneo are the worst affected, but fires have also spread on Sulawesi, including in South Sulawesi, where limestone caves house the world's oldest prehistoric art.
Source: Reuters via The Hindu, Oct 24, 2026
In a cave in South Sulawesi's Maros-Pangkep, an artwork depicting human-like figures interacting with a pig was dated by researchers from Australia's Griffith University to at least 51,200 years old. In a cave on Muna island, off Sulawesi, a reddish-coloured hand stencil was dated to at least 67,800 years, Reuters said.
Source: Reuters, Oct 23, 2026
Near the Maros-Pangkep cave, firefighters worked to put out fires as smoke drifted over the dramatic karst landscape that is a defining feature of the national park and UNESCO Global Geopark surrounding the cave. Firefighter Muhammad Ikfar said fires burned near the site for more than a week earlier this month and came within 800 metres (2,625 feet) of the cave, and that more than 270 hectares (667 acres) of the national park burned between September 30 and October 18.
Source: Reuters, Oct 23, 2026
"The first and most destructive effect is the heat. Even without direct fire touching the paintings, it could ruin them because it changes the temperature around the paintings and accelerates the process of corrosion," Griffith University archaeologist Basran Burhan told Reuters. Smoke also creates soot on the paintings, covering them so they become blurred and difficult to identify, he said.
Source: Griffith University archaeologist Basran Burhan via Reuters, Oct 23, 2026
Firefighters were still working to put out fires in other parts of the park on Thursday and Friday, Ikfar said, adding that conditions were dry with no rain yet. "If we don't do something about this quick, if there isn't any tactical mitigation efforts for this incident we will lose one of the most amazing evidence of human history in Maros-Pangkep," Burhan said. "And that is a great shame."