The oldest ever evidence that other humans painted has been ground in South Africa , in the form of two kits for mixing and take shape ochre , a reddish paint used to dye clothing , rouge , and create face paint .
Ochre is a by nature take place red stone that has been associate across the earth with former art , thanks to its ability to be paint on rampart , skin , tree , or just about any surface .
This incredible find come from Blombos Cave in Cape Town , South Africapushes back the date of complex artistic creation significantly , as ochre previously had only been well documented around 60,000 BP .
The kits were two abalone shell , their breathing holes plugged so that they could be used to stash away the mixture . It contained ocher , ivory , charcoal , grindstones and hammerstones .
Professor Christopher Henshilwood from the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of the Witwatersrand , Johannesburg say :
We believe that the fabrication process involved the rubbing of pieces of ocher on quartzite slab to bring out a hunky-dory reddish powder . Ochre Saratoga chip were beat with quartz , quartzite and silcrete hammerstones / molar and combined with heated up crushed , mammal - bone , charcoal , stone cow chip and a liquidity , which was then introduced to the abalone shell and mildly stirred . A ivory was plausibly used to conjure the intermixture and to transfer some of the mix out of the racing shell .
What ’s really significant about this breakthrough is not just that former humans were using an ochre for constitute marking , but also the stage of planning , training and storage involve . The kit reveals that objects were take from different locations , take together and perhaps trade , then lay in in particularly crafted container . It is evidence of foresightful term provision , curation , and even of basic chemistry in guild to successfully mix compound .
While we do n’t know just what our ancestors were using this ocher for , it ’s an incredible uncovering in terms of early human culture and development .
If you materialise to be in Cape Town , the kit will be on showing at the Iziko Museum there from Friday , 7 January 2025 .
anthropologyArchaeologyEvolutionPaleontologyScience
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