SINGAPORE - Many secrets from the far-distant past have been unlocked by other cave paintings found around the world. Here are a look at some of them:

Cave painting of wild cattle and hand stencils in Borneo

The painting of three animals that seem to resemble wild cattle known as banteng was found in a limestone cave on the Indonesian island of Borneo.

Researchers have dated the artwork, which is made of an iron-oxide pigment known as ochre that gives it its orange-red hue, to be at least 40,000 years old.

The findings were published in scientific journal Nature in November 2018.

Several hand stencils which were painted in the same shades were alongside the cattle.

Two were found to be at least 37,000 years old, while the third had a maximum age of around 51,800 years.

And a second phase of paintings, depicted with dark-purple hand stencils, were found to be around 20,000 years old.

Researchers used these discoveries to deduce that the cave paintings had likely appeared in Borneo between 40,000 to 52,000 years ago. They also gave them insights into how rock art traditions emerged and were passed down among generations within South-east Asia.

Cave painting of hunting scene in Sulawesi

A rock art panel depicting a hunting scene was found in a limestone cave in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

The hunters, which are painted in reddish-brown colours, are believed to be part-human and part-animal in search of wild pigs and a small buffalo.

Known in mythology as therianthropes, the hunters are said to be people who have the ability to shape shift into other animals.

Researchers from Griffith University in Australia have determined that the painting is at least 43,900 years old, according to findings in the Nature journal in 2019.

They noted that the scene is one of the oldest records of storytelling, adding that it is very rare for such a highly advanced artistic piece to be created at that time.

Scenes in cave art had begun appearing some 21,000 to 14,000 years ago, and such clear depictions of the therianthropes are all the more uncommon, they said.

Cave painting of hand stencils and pig-deer in Sulawesi

Researchers found cave paintings of a 35,400-year-old pig-deer, or a babirusa, and a human hand print that is at least 39,900 years old in the Maros cave sites in Sulawesi.

The discovery was among 12 human hand stencils and two animal depictions from a total of seven cave sites, noted researchers in the journal Nature in 2014.

Lascaux cave paintings in Southwestern France

The famous Lascaux caves in the Montignac village in south-west France has over 600 paintings covering the interior walls and ceilings of the cave.

Discovered in the 1940s, the paintings are mainly of animals, such as horses, deer, and aurochs -an extinct type of cattle - and are estimated to be between 15,000 and 17,000 years old.

One of the most famous chambers in the caves includes the Hall of the Bulls, which feature mainly the aurochs.

The original cave was closed in 1963, after the number of visitors had caused damage to the paintings.

A replica of the Hall of the Bulls section opened in 1983, near the original cave.