Most Ancient Art Up Close: Photos

The world's oldest engraving was made approximately 540,000 years ago by Homo erectus living at Java, Indonesia.

living at Java, Indonesia. The engraving featured a geometric pattern on a mollusk shell.

Here you can see a close up of lines from the engraving.

Wim Lustenhouwer, VU University Amsterdam

Scientists determined the ancient ancestor of modern humans made the engraving with a shark tooth. The ancient art was found at a site in Java, Indonesia in the 1890s and was then stored in the Dubois collection of the Naturalis museum in Leiden, The Netherlands.

Sediment within the shells enabled modern researchers to date the piece using both isotopic and luminescence methods.

Shown is the fossil shell with the engraving.

Wim Lustenhouwer, VU University Amsterdam

The age of the engraving is astounding, as the earliest previously known indisputable engravings are at least 300,000 years younger than the recently identified item.

Here, an engraved line is magnified.

Joordens et al.

The inside of the fossil shell, which shows that the hole made by Homo erectus is at the exact spot where the mollusk's muscle is attached to the shell. Humans today remove mussel flesh from shells in a similar manner, only with tools other than shark teeth.

Henk Caspers, Naturalis, Leiden, The Netherlands

A shell tool was also found among the shells that included the engraving.

The shell tool is shown here with a close-up of the sharp edge that was likely used for cutting or scraping.

Francesco d'Errico, Bordeaux University

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