Indonesia wildfires threaten world’s oldest cave art

Maros Pangkep, Indonesia: The world’s oldest known cave paintings on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi are facing a growing threat from severe wildfires sweeping across the region, with researchers warning that intense heat and smoke could risk accelerating the damage to the prehistoric treasures, Reuters reported on Friday. 

Indonesia is currently battling its most severe forest and land fires since 2015, driven by a severe El Niño weather pattern that has elevated temperatures and triggered widespread drought across the archipelago, the report added.

The ancient rock art, located in the limestone karst caves of Maros-Pangkep in South Sulawesi, includes artwork which Australian and Indonesian researchers dated to be at least 51,200 years old. 

Another cave on Muna island features stencilled handprints and animal depictions, which earlier this year were estimated to be over 67,000 years old in a research published in Nature magazine.

The newly dated artwork on Muna predates the previously recorded Maros-Pangkep cave art in Sulawesi by approximately 16,600 years. It is also around 1,100 years older than Neanderthal-attributed hand stencils discovered in Spain, National Geographic reported.

Grave concern was expressed due to worry that extreme temperatures from the blazes “could ruin them because it changes the temperature around the paintings ⁠and accelerates the process of corrosion,” one archeologist was quoted by Reuters.

There is also worry that the soot from the smoke could potentially lead to the paintings becoming “blurred and difficult to identify.”

"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," the archaeologist added.

Beyond the threat to cultural heritage, the broader wildfire crisis has blanketed parts of Southeast Asia in thick transboundary haze, degrading air quality, and closing schools.

Both Singapore and Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur have reportedly ranked within the world's top 10 most polluted major cities late Friday, said AFP citing the Swiss-based air monitor IQAir.

On Thursday, Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Sugiono said that the country had released an additional 1.235 trillion rupiah (around $68 million) in state aid to tackle widespread forest and land blazes, prioritizing health services for affected communities.

He further noted that roughly 71,000 personnel have been deployed alongside aerial water-bombing and dry-ice cloud-seeding efforts to combat the blazes.