Emergence of Modern Human Behavior: Middle Stone Age Engravings from South Africa

doi:10.1126/science.1067575

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Published Online January 10, 2002
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1067575

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Submitted on October 30, 2001
Accepted on December 28, 2001

Emergence of Modern Human Behavior: Middle Stone Age Engravings from South Africa

Christopher S. Henshilwood ¹^*, Francesco d'Errico ², Royden Yates ³, Zenobia Jacobs ⁴, Chantal Tribolo ⁵, Geoff A. T. Duller ⁴, Norbert Mercier ⁵, Judith C. Sealy ⁶, Helene Valladas ⁵, Ian Watts ⁷, Ann G. Wintle ⁴

¹ Iziko Museums of Cape Town, South African Museum, Post Office Box 61, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa; Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA; Centre for Development Studies, Strømgaten, 54, 5007 Bergen, Norway.
² Institut de Préhistoire et de Géologie du Quaternaire, UMR 5808 du CNRS, Avenue des Facultés, 33405, Talence, France.
³ Iziko Museums of Cape Town, South African Museum, Post Office Box 61, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa.
⁴ Luminescence Dating Laboratory, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, SY23 3DB, UK.
⁵ Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, UMR CEA-CNRS, Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex , France.
⁶ Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7701, Cape Town, South Africa.
⁷ Iziko Museums of Cape Town, South African Museum, Post Office Box 61, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa; Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7701, Cape Town, South Africa.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: chenshilwood{at}iziko.org.za.

In the Eurasian Upper Palaeolithic after about 35,000 years ago abstract or depictional images provide evidence for cognitive abilities considered integral to modern human behavior. Here we report on two abstract representations engraved on pieces of red ochre recovered from the Middle Stone Age layers at Blombos Cave. A mean date of 77,000 years was obtained for the layers containing the engraved ochres by thermoluminescence dating of burnt lithics and the stratigraphic integrity was confirmed by an optically stimulated luminescence age of 70,000 years on an overlying dune. These engravings support the emergence of modern human behavior in Africa at least 35,000 years before the start of the Upper Palaeolithic.

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