Preserving Traces on the Wall of Time

A series of karst hills rise behind dense trees, forming contours on the landscape that seem to hold the language of the past. In Liang Kabori Village, Lohia District, Muna Regency, Southeast Sulawesi, time has left its mark on stone walls.

The wind from the hills carries stories that have endured for thousands of years. Behind the mouths of caves scattered across the Liang Kabori karst area, there are rock paintings that bear witness to the long journey of humans on Muna Island.

Liang Kabori Village covers an area of approximately 4.20 square kilometers with a population of 1,647. However, this territorial area seems small compared to the historical expanse contained within the prehistoric cave sites of Liang Kabori.

Long before modern research was conducted, the local community had already known about these caves. They were aware of the images on the stone walls but had not yet understood the age and significant value underlying the fading colored engravings.

Scientific exploration began in 1977 when a team from the Center for Archaeological Research and National Heritage conducted an initial survey and identified several important sites as part of the scientific documentation of rock paintings on Muna Island.

La Ode Samada (58), a preservation officer of the Liang Kabori cultural heritage area, said that at the beginning of the exploration only nine caves were identified. Now the number has reached 66 caves and is still potentially increasing.

One of the most important is Liang Metanduno.

On January 21, 2026, the journal Nature published a collaborative study by Indonesian and Australian researchers entitled "Rock art from at least 67,800 years ago in Sulawesi." The study revealed that a hand stencil on the wall of Liang Metanduno has a minimum age of 67,800 years. Dating was performed using the laser-ablation uranium-series (LA-U-series) method by analyzing calcite layers formed over the rock painting.

This finding makes Liang Metanduno the oldest known non-figurative rock art site that can be scientifically dated with a minimum age. Guinness World Records then recognized it as the oldest non-figurative rock painting in the world.

Behind a simple hand stencil lies a profound question about ancient humans—about the ability to create marks, communicate through symbols, and leave something that can endure far beyond the lifetime of its creator.

However, once the age of an image is known, the responsibility to preserve it grows even greater.

Time has preserved the image for tens of thousands of years. Now, the threat comes from humans and the surrounding environment. Touch from visitors, cigarette smoke, changes in temperature and humidity, vibrations, and sunlight can accelerate the deterioration of the rock painting.

Ajuk, a preservation officer with an archaeological background, stated that visitor access is a critical issue in conservation efforts.

"Physical touch, cigarette smoke, vibrations around the cave entrance, the cave's temperature influenced by humans' breath, and sunlight entering will significantly determine the damage to the painting's structure," he said.

For visitors, a touch may last only a few seconds. For an image that has survived 67,800 years, that touch can be the beginning of damage that slowly erases traces of the past.

In July 2026, the Ministry of Culture designated Metanduno Cave as a national cultural heritage site. This designation strengthens the position of the site as an important part of Indonesia's cultural and archaeological heritage.

Among the karst hills of Liang Kabori, the past still awaits to be read. The fading images may no longer tell the full story of their creators. However, every engraving serves as proof that tens of thousands of years ago, humans stood before stone walls, left colors, and then departed.

What remains are traces.

And now, humanity's task is not only to find meaning but to ensure those traces remain.