The discovery of a red ochre painting of a Sulawesi warty pig in Leang Tedongnge cave, dated to at least 45,500 years ago, now stands as the oldest known figurative artwork. A team from Griffith University, Australia, used uranium-series dating on mineral deposits that formed over the painting to establish its minimum age. The find, accessed only after arduous seasonal treks, surpasses previously known European cave art by thousands of years and suggests that representational image-making emerged early as Homo sapiens dispersed across Wallacea.

In the same region, rock art at Liang Metanduno in Southeast Sulawesi has been dated to approximately 67,800 years, making it among the oldest known human markings, though its motifs are non-figurative. Indonesian and Australian researchers from BRIN, Griffith, and Southern Cross universities are validating the age, and the culture ministry has proposed installing a replica as the centrepiece of the Southeast Sulawesi Museum to anchor regional identity and heritage tourism.

Evidence of early violence has also surfaced. A 100,000-year-old skull from Qafzeh Cave in Israel, belonging to an adult male, bears a deep cut on the left jaw that healed before death. Microscopic analysis, published in Scientific Reports, indicates a sharp stone tool likely inflicted the wound, making it the oldest documented case of interpersonal violence with a weapon. Separately, a 6,000-year-old infant skeleton from Tell Brak in Syria shows multiple rib fractures and skull lesions that researchers attribute to non-accidental trauma, potentially the earliest known instance of child abuse.

A historical enigma comes from Antarctica, where a skull found in 1985 on Yamana Beach has been identified as a young Chilean woman who died between 1819 and 1825. The timing coincides with or predates the first confirmed sighting of the continent by Russian explorer Fabian von Bellingshausen in 1820, raising questions about unrecorded voyages. Chilean scientists continue to search for additional remains. Meanwhile, forensic investigations in Brazil and Argentina are examining recent deaths—a woman fatally burned during a Candomblé ceremony and a dismembered infant found in a cemetery—though these cases are unrelated to the archaeological record.