Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Emergence of Modern Human Behavior: Middle Stone Age Engravings from South Africa
Christopher S. Henshilwood,123*Francesco d'Errico,4Royden Yates,1Zenobia Jacobs,5Chantal Tribolo,6Geoff A. T. Duller,5Norbert Mercier,6Judith C. Sealy,7Helene Valladas,6Ian Watts,17Ann G. Wintle5
In the Eurasian Upper Paleolithic after about 35,000 years ago,
abstract or depictional images provide evidence for cognitiveabilities
considered integral to modern human behavior. Here wereport on two
abstract representations engraved on pieces of redochre recovered from
the Middle Stone Age layers at Blombos Cavein South Africa. A mean
date of 77,000 years was obtained forthe layers containing the
engraved ochres by thermoluminescencedating of burnt lithics, and the
stratigraphic integrity was confirmedby an optically stimulated
luminescence age of 70,000 years onan overlying dune. These engravings
support the emergence of modernhuman behavior in Africa at least
35,000 years before the startof the Upper Paleolithic.
1 Iziko Museums of Cape Town, South African
Museum, Post Office Box 61, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa.
2 Department of Anthropology, State University of
New York at Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA.
3 Centre
for Development Studies, University of Bergen, Strømgaten, 54, 5007 Bergen, Norway.
4 Institut de Préhistoire et
de Géologie du Quaternaire, UMR 5808 du CNRS, Avenue des
Facultés, 33405, Talence, France.
5 Luminescence Dating Laboratory, Institute of
Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, SY23
3DB, UK.
6 Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de
l'Environnement, UMR CEA-CNRS, Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France.
7 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
Inaugural Article: The Ysterfontein 1 Middle Stone Age site, South Africa, and early human exploitation of coastal resources.
R. G. Klein, G. Avery, K. Cruz-Uribe, D. Halkett, J. E. Parkington, T. Steele, T. P. Volman, and R. Yates (2004)
PNAS
101, 5708-5715
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
Middle Stone Age Shell Beads from South Africa.
C. Henshilwood, F. d'Errico, M. Vanhaeren, K. van Niekerk, and Z. Jacobs (2004)
Science
304, 404
|Full Text »|PDF »
