100,000-Year-Old Paint Mixing Kits Found

[brooklynite]

from http://www.history.com/news/2011/10/13/100000-year-old-paint-mixing-kits-found/">History.com:

One hundred thousand years ago, a small group of ancient humans entered Blombos Cave in South Africa to spend a day or two mixing paint. They ground up red and yellow rocks lugged from afar and combined the powder with marrow, charcoal and water, using bones and their fingers to blend the ingredients in large shells. Their task completed, the Stone Age artisans emerged with a fresh supply of pigment for decorating bodies, clothes or surfaces. Some time later, sand blew in and covered their discarded gear, which lay undisturbed until recently.

At least, that’s the scenario researchers describe in a paper published in the latest issue of the journal Science. In 2008, they discovered what they believe are toolkits once used by archaic Homo sapiens to transform ochre—soft, colorful rock that contains iron oxides—into the oldest known form of paint. Their findings suggest that modern humans’ ancestors could plan ahead, think conceptually and engage in sophisticated behavior much earlier than previously thought.

“This discovery represents an important benchmark in the evolution of complex human cognition in that it shows that humans had the conceptual ability to source, combine and store substances that were then possibly used to enhance their social practices,” said lead researcher Christopher Henshilwood of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He added that, while it is widely believed that Homo sapiens originated in Africa 200,000 years ago, archaeological clues about their intelligence and capabilities in the initial stages are remarkably scarce. The Bombas Cave artifacts predate other evidence of ochre processing and related activities by 40,000 to 50,000 years, he said.

Unearthed at a site that sheltered early humans as far back as 140,000 years ago, the two kits comprise ochre residue and fragments, stone tools for grinding and hammering, mammal bones and abalone shells that served as mixing bowls, according to the study. Researchers analyzed quartz sediments in which the items were buried to calculate their age. “The dating, realized with two independent methods, is crucial because it shows without ambiguity that the two toolkits are 100,000 years old,” said co-author Franceso d’Errico. “This makes them the oldest known evidence for the use of containers and the oldest known kits for the production of pigment.”

Bible literalists, your turn...

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. Outstanding. And didn't Gary Larson do a cartoon "the first critic" along those lines?

[WhiteTara]

2. I have long believed that the smart us and dumb old them theory

was totally incorrect.

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. Good point. People's perceptive skills were likely the same.

And folks one thousand years from now may laugh at us for many reasons.

[WhiteTara]

11. If we let them come along, that is. We are hell bent on

destroying the entire planet, one destructive act at a time. Remember the 10 worst MAN made hells on earth? Soon we will be able to add Fukushima to the list...the entire island is going to be uninhabitable soon.

[doc03]

3. How could that be the world is only 5000 years old? n/t

[chillspike]

5. Haha...beat me to it...lol :)

[doc03]

6. I went through the Luray Caverns in VA a few days ago

they said one of the stalactites was 7 million years old, I wonder how the fundies explain that?

[Raster]

7. They don't. Science is wrong. The Bible is the unmistakeable and literal word of God.

They don't have to explain when they believe they are the exclusive, chosen of the Almighty.

[WhiteTara]

9. In a cavern here in Arkansas, they told us that it

takes 30 years for them to grow one inch!

[Worship Money]

8. I love deep history

I definitely nerd out for stories like this, but we've been finding out so many exciting things about humanity's past recently.

[madokie]

10. We've come a long ways