Wildfires in Indonesia threaten ancient cave art on Sulawesi

Intense wildfires spreading across Indonesia have created hazardous conditions near critical cultural heritage sites on the island of Sulawesi. Researchers pointed out that the combination of high heat and thick smoke from some of the worst fires in over a decade could speed up the decay of fragile prehistoric rock art. Among the endangered cultural treasures is a specific depiction of human-like figures interacting with a pig inside a cavern in South Sulawesi's Maros-Pangkep. Experts from Australia's Griffith University previously dated this particular creative work to be at least 51,200 years old, while other regional paintings are calculated to exceed 67,000 years of age. Emergency personnel and firefighters have been deployed to combat the blazes burning near the Maros-Pangkep cave system. Thick smoke has been observed drifting across the dramatic karst landscape that defines the protected national park and UNESCO Global Geopark surrounding these ancient archaeological sites.