Xinhua
03 Jun 2025

JAKARTA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) has launched a digital platform showcasing the country's prehistoric rock art, in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, Griffith University, the Ministry of Culture, and several academic institutions.

Titled Kanvas Purbakala, the digital platform offers immersive 360-degree virtual tours of 24 significant cave sites across the archipelago.

"Kanvas Purbakala is a starting point for the preservation and utilization of our nation's cultural heritage," said Laksana Tri Handoko, head of BRIN, on Tuesday.

Arianne Santoso, representative of Google Indonesia, said the project has documented over 500 archaeological elements from more than 100 caves stretching from Sumatra to Papua, making it the world's largest digital rock art collection accessible via Google Arts & Culture.

Major discoveries from the project include the world's oldest known narrative cave art at Leang Karampuang in Maros, the earliest prehistoric hunting scene at Leang Bulu Sipong in Pangkep, and evidence of 31,000-year-old human surgery at Liang Tebo in East Kalimantan.