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The oldest known animal cave painting was discovered in Indonesia in the Leang Tedongnge cave in a valley in Sulawesi. The painting is that of a Sulawesi wild pig and is thought to have been painted about 45,000 years ago. Maxime Aubert, a dating specialist, identified a calcite deposit formed over the painting and used Uranium-series isotope dating to determine the age of the painting. The painting provides the earliest evidence of human settlement in the region.

The researchers noted that the Sulawesi warty pig painting, dated to at least 45,500 years ago, is part of a rock art panel located above a high ledge along the rear wall of Leang Tedongnge.

“It shows a pig with a short crest of upright hairs and a pair of horn-like facial warts in front of the eyes, a characteristic feature of adult male Sulawesi warty pigs,” Mr. Brumm said.

“Painted using red ochre pigment, the pig appears to be observing a fight or social interaction between two other warty pigs,” he added.

The previously oldest dated rock art ‘scene’ at least 43,900 years old, was a depiction of hybrid human-animal beings hunting Sulawesi warty pigs and dwarf bovids.

It was discovered by the same research team at a nearby limestone cave site.

Credit : The Hindu

Picture Credit : Google

Tanzanian author and retired British academic Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize in Literature 2021. A Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent, Canterbury Gurnah was awarded the prize for his work on exploring the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee. Gurnah has written 10 novels and several short stories.

His most famous novel is Paradise , which was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 1994

"Gurnah consciously breaks with convention, upending the colonial perspective to highlight that of the indigenous populations. Thus, his novel Desertion (2005) about a love affair becomes a blunt contradiction to what he has called “the imperial romance,” the Nobel Prize added.

The twitter page also shared a recording of a near six-minute telephone interview with the writer. "I was just watching the announcement here on my computer. Who are you please?" Gurnah asks as an official from the Nobel Prize speaks. When the person later introduces himself and asks how he feels, Gurnah, sounding calm and composed, says, "I am still settling in, man. This is such a big prize."

Gurnah becomes the first Tanzanian writer to win the Nobel Prize.

Credit : Business Line

Picture Credit : Google