The evidence documents the two data points, not the trajectory between them.

The Cave And The Continuity

There is something resonant about the fact that the evidence for 25,000-year-old betel nut use was found in a limestone cave in the Maros-Pangkep karst of South Sulawesi — the same karst system that has also yielded the world’s oldest cave paintings.

The people who painted the pig and the hunting scene in the Maros-Pangkep caves were anatomically and behaviorally modern humans.

They were capable of symbolic thought, of representing the world in images, of organizing complex behaviors and transmitting knowledge across generations.