El Nino driven wildfires threaten Sulawesi's 67,000-year-old cave paintings
Indonesia's Sulawesi island is home to the world's oldest cave paintings, some over 67,000 years old, but right now, they're in serious trouble.
Intense wildfires, driven by El Nino, are putting these irreplaceable artworks at risk by speeding up their decay and blanketing them in soot.
Wildfires threaten Maros-Pangkep and Muna island
This wildfire season is Indonesia's worst since 2015, with flames spreading beyond Sumatra and Borneo.
In Maros-Pangkep (South Sulawesi), one key site, an artwork depicting human-like figures interacting with a pig dated by researchers from Australia's Griffith University to be at least 51,200 years old, and another, a at least 67,800-year-old hand stencil in a cave on Muna island, off Sulawesi, came within just 800 meters of the cave earlier this month.
Firefighters are still battling dry conditions to keep these pieces of history safe.