Discovery! Australia: Oldest rock art is 17,300-year-old kangaroo

 BBC News reported an amazing and ancient discovery of artwork done by primitive man in Australia- and it was of a Kangaroo!  Here's the amazing story and picture:

(Image caption  A montage of photographs of the 17,300-year-old kangaroo rock painting (left) and an illustration of the artwork (right), Credit: BBC News, DAMIEN FINCH) 

Discovery!  Australia: Oldest rock art is 17,300-year-old kangaroo

Australian scientists have discovered the country's oldest known rock art - a 17,300-year-old painting of a kangaroo. 

 The artwork measuring 2m (6.5ft) was painted in red ochre on the ceiling of a rock shelter. It was found in Western Australia's Kimberley region, known for its Aboriginal rock paintings. Its age was determined by radiocarbon-dating ancient mud wasp nests. 

(Image right: Australia, with the Kimberely region highlighted top left corner of the continent)

NOTE: Wikipedia noted: The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts in the region of the Pilbara, and on the east by the Northern Territory.

The findings were published on Tuesday, February 23, 2021 in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

  Researcher Damien Finch, who pioneered the mud wasp dating technique, said it was rare to find mud wasp nests both on top and underneath a single artwork. But the team was able to sample both types to establish the artwork's minimum and maximum ages. "

We radiocarbon dated three wasp nests underlying the painting and three nests built over it to determine, confidently, that the painting is between 17,500 and 17,100 years old; most likely 17,300 years old," said Dr Finch, a geochronologist from the University of Melbourne. 

 Scientists say this estimation makes the artwork the oldest known intact painting in Australia. 

FULL ARTICLE: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56164484