fritchie
04-15-2004, 11:26 PM
The BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3629559.stm) has just posted an archeological announcement about South African “pea-sized” mollusc shells drilled and apparently strung into necklaces or bracelets about 70,000 years ago. We had a similar post some months back about roughly 40,000 year old carvings of birds, animals, and possibly human-like figures in Germany.
Both of these discoveries say something about the early age at which humanity developed abstract thinking, and about the artistic nature of that early characteristic. South African sites, such as this “Blombos Cave on the southern tip of the continent” and east of Cape Town, long have been sources of highly developed early human fossils.
This area is far from the equator and has a climate not unlike that of Europe. Modern humans are thought to have left Africa for the rest of the world approximately 60,000 - 50,000 years ago, via the Arabian Peninsula. This South African area may or may not be unique as the place of development of modern humanity, but it is looking increasingly good.
Possibly even more interesting to sculptors is a block of incised, solid ochre of about the same age which was discovered at about the same location several years ago. Both pictures are posted.
Both of these discoveries say something about the early age at which humanity developed abstract thinking, and about the artistic nature of that early characteristic. South African sites, such as this “Blombos Cave on the southern tip of the continent” and east of Cape Town, long have been sources of highly developed early human fossils.
This area is far from the equator and has a climate not unlike that of Europe. Modern humans are thought to have left Africa for the rest of the world approximately 60,000 - 50,000 years ago, via the Arabian Peninsula. This South African area may or may not be unique as the place of development of modern humanity, but it is looking increasingly good.
Possibly even more interesting to sculptors is a block of incised, solid ochre of about the same age which was discovered at about the same location several years ago. Both pictures are posted.