The earliest evidence of art made by humans - dating back 73,000 years - has been discovered inside an African cave.
Scientists say the drawing, which consists of three red lines cross-hatched with six separate lines, was 'intentionally created' on a smooth piece of rock.
The latest find predates previous drawings from Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia by at least 30,000 years, scientists say.
The earliest evidence of art made by humans - dating back 73,000 years - has been found in an African cave. Scientists say the drawing, which consists of three red lines cross-hatched with six separate lines, was 'intentionally created' on a smooth fragment of rock (pictured)
An abstract pattern has been engraved on this piece of ocher found at Blombos Cave, among the same layers of rock that yielded the new find
The discovery was made by archaeologist Dr Luca Pollarolo, of the University of the Witwatersrand, at the Blombos Cave in the Southern Cape area of South Africa.
He painstakingly sifted through thousands of similar rock fragments that were excavated from the site while in the lab.
Blombos Cave has been excavated by leading archaeologists Professor Christopher Henshilwood and Dr Karen van Niekerk since 1991.
It contains material dating from 100,000 to 70 000 years ago, a time period referred to as the Middle Stone Age, as well as younger, Later Stone Age material dating from 2,000 to 300 years ago.
Realising that the lines on the flake were unlike anything that the team had come across from the cave before, they set out to answer the questions it posed.
They concluded that the markings were made on purpose.
Professor Henshilwood said: 'Before this discovery, Palaeolithic archaeologists have for a long time been convinced that unambiguous symbols first appeared when Homo sapiens entered Europe, about 40 000 years ago, and later replaced local Neanderthals.
'Recent archaeological discoveries in Africa, Europe and Asia, in which members of our team have often participated, support a much earlier emergence for the production and use of symbols.'
The find predates previous drawings from Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia by at least 30,000 years. This silcrete flake displays a drawing made up of nine lines traced on one of its faces with an ocher implement
WHAT EXAMPLES OF EARLY HUMAN ART HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED WORLDWIDE?
It seems that humanity and its ancestors have been driven to create patterns, abstract images and representations of the world around them for thousands of years.
The earliest known engraving, a zig-zag pattern, incised on a fresh water shell from Trinil, Java, was found in layers of sediment dated to 540,000 years ago.
A recent article proposed that painted representations in three caves of the Iberian Peninsula were 64,000 years old and therefore produced by Neanderthals.
The oldest known shell (top) to have been engraved by an early human has been uncovered in a Dutch museum collection, where it remained unnoticed since the 1930s. Pictured here is its polished edge (bottom)
Lifelike images found at sites such as the famous Lascaux Cave in south-west France, which date to around 30,000 years ago, are said to demonstrate an ability to depict animal movement superior to that seen today.
In 2018, experts uncovered evidence of art made by humans dating back 73,000 years in an African cave.
Scientists say the drawing, which consists of three red lines cross-hatched with six separate lines, was 'intentionally created' on a smooth silcrete flake.
That makes the drawing, found in the Blombos Caves site in South Africa, the oldest drawing by Homo sapiens ever found, experts say.
Under the guidance of study second author Professor Francesco d'Errico, of the University of Bordeaux in France, the team examined and photographed the piece under a microscope to establish whether the lines were part of the stone or whether it was applied to it.
To ensure their results, they also examined the piece by using Raman spectroscopy and an electron microscope.
After confirming the lines were applied to the stone, the team experimented with various paint and drawing techniques and found that the drawings were made with an ochre crayon, with a tip of between one and three millimetres thick.
They said the abrupt termination of the lines at the edge of the flake also suggested that the pattern originally extended over a larger surface, and may have been more complex in its entirety.
The amazing discovery was made by archaeologist Dr Luca Pollarolo, of the University of the Witwatersrand, at the Blombos Cave in the Southern Cape area of South Africa. This image shows the exterior the Cave
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE STONE AGE?
The stone age is a period in human prehistory distinguished by the original development of stone tools that covers more than 95 per cent of human technological prehistory.
It begins with the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins, ancient ancestors to humans, during the Old Stone Age - beginning around 3.3 million years ago.
Between roughly 400,000 and 200,000 years ago, the pace of innovation in stone technology began to accelerate very slightly, a period known as the Middle Stone Age.
By the beginning of this time, handaxes were made with exquisite craftsmanship. This eventually gave way to smaller, more diverse toolkits, with an emphasis on flake tools rather than larger core tools.
The stone age is a period in human prehistory distinguished by the original development of stone tools that covers more than 95 per cent of human technological prehistory. This image shows neolithic jadeitite axes from the Museum of Toulouse
These toolkits were established by at least 285,000 years in some parts of Africa, and by 250,000 to 200,000 years in Europe and parts of western Asia. These toolkits last until at least 50,000 to 28,000 years ago.
During the Later Stone Age the pace of innovations rose and the level of craftsmanship increased.
Groups of Homo sapiens experimented with diverse raw materials, including bone, ivory, and antler, as well as stone.
The period, between 50,000 and 39,000 years ago, is also associated with the advent of modern human behaviour in Africa.
Different groups sought their own distinct cultural identity and adopted their own ways of making things.
Later Stone Age peoples and their technologies spread out of Africa over the next several thousand years.
The earliest known engraving, a zig-zag pattern, incised on a fresh water shell from Trinil, Java, was found in layers dated to 540,000 years ago.
A recent article proposed that painted representations in three caves of the Iberian Peninsula were 64,000 years old and therefore produced by Neanderthals.
That makes the drawing on the Blombos silcrete flake the oldest drawing by Homo sapiens ever found.
The researchers said that the archaeological layer in which the Blombos drawing was found also yielded other indicators of 'symbolic thinking' - including shell beads covered with ochre - and pieces of ochres engraved with abstract patterns.
They said some of the engravings 'closely resemble' the one drawn on the silcrete flake.
Prof Henshilwood added: 'This demonstrates that early Homo sapiens in the southern Cape used different techniques to produce similar signs on different media.
'This observation supports the hypothesis that these signs were symbolic in nature and represented an inherent aspect of the behaviourally modern world of these African Homo sapiens, the ancestors of all of us today.'
The findings were published in the journal Nature.
Blombos Cave has been excavated by leading archaeologists Professor Christopher Henshilwood and Dr Karen van Niekerk since 1991
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2018/09/12/red-crosshatched-pattern-scored-into-stone-is-the-earliest-evidence-of-a-drawing-made-by-humans/
Main photo article The earliest evidence of art made by humans – dating back 73,000 years – has been discovered inside an African cave.
Scientists say the drawing, which consists of three red lines cross-hatched with six separate lines, was ‘intentionally created’ on a smooth piece of...
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Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
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