OT- Abstract Modern Art - 70,000 years old.
Mark
Cave Art Shows Human Behavior Arose Early - Study
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The place: South Africa's Cape coast, a cliff
overlooking the Indian Ocean. People are sitting around campfires, talking
about their day of hunting or fishing, their comrades, and even art.
What is remarkable about the scene is the time frame -- it took place 70,000
years ago, when humans were believed to be physically but not mentally
evolved -- thugs barely scraping a living off the land.
However, the discovery of elaborately carved pieces of ochre, a red stone
still used to make powder and paint, shows the behavior of early Homo
sapiens was distinctly human tens of thousands of years earlier than
conventional wisdom holds, researchers said on Thursday.
``I think these are abstract images, deliberately carved, which have some
symbolic value or some symbolic meaning to the person who carved them and
also to other people in the cave site who lived there,'' Christopher
Henshilwood, an anthropologist at Iziko Museums of Cape Town in South Africa
and also of the State University of New York, said in a telephone interview.
``We were very surprised to say the least, but in the context of other
things we have found at the site before, it was not unexpected,''
Henshilwood said.
His team has also found 28 decorative bone tools at the same Blombos cave
site, which sits on a 120-foot-high cliff on the southern Cape shore of the
Indian Ocean, 180 miles east of Cape Town.
DECORATIVE TOOLS
The tools are as decorative as they are utilitarian. ``Some of them are very
beautifully worked,'' he said.
``We have also found evidence for fishing. Fishing is also one of the
markers used for modern human behavior.''
But the subject of his report in Friday's issue of the journal Science is
the chunks of carved ochre.
``We have a very large amount of ochre, 8,000 pieces of ochre in those
middle stone age levels,'' he said.
``Many of these pieces were scraped to make a powder, which probably would
have been mixed with fat and used to paint the body and probably used to
paint artifacts as well.''
Seven of the nine pieces are carved, and two of them definitely have
abstract carvings on them, leading Henshilwood to suspect the cave artists
had modern language. A picture of an animal is immediately understandable.
But an abstract carving would have to be explained and discussed.
The 2.5 to three inch long pieces of ochre are overlaid with parallel lines
in a cross-hatched design, the researchers report.
The designs are as clearly executed as modern abstract art, and look like
European cave paintings that are only half as old, dating back to just
35,000 years ago, Henshilwood said.
``It's not dissimilar to abstract engravings found on cave walls in France
and Spain and Italy dated to 35,000 years ago, which occur right next to
very beautiful pictures of the ibex and bison and so forth,'' Henshilwood
said.
So, not unlike the artists of today, some portrayed realistic scenes and
some artists ventured into the abstract.
``There were people who could paint very beautiful pictures and people who
were also making abstract engravings. These things go hand in hand,'' he
said.
Henshilwood said he does not know what the carvings are meant to represent
on the ochre, a mineral made red by its high iron content.
``The surface was first prepared for the engraving by scraping the surf to
form a flat surface, and then the engraving was put on that,'' he said.
``It is a very deliberate pattern. It is not by any stretch of the
imagination accidental. This is telling us people were capable of abstract
thought. They were also capable of talking and thinking in the past, present
and future, and in the abstract, of course,'' he added.
So was there the cave-dweller equivalent of arguments about whether
``modern'' art is really art? ``I think they certainly sat around a campfire
like we would do while camping, and discuss the days activities,''
Henshilwood said.
``I think they certainly would have understood what that engraving meant,
what that piece of art meant. There would have been discussions about it.''
Henshilwood said it is significant the carvings were found in Africa, where
humans originated.
``We are changing the origins of behavior from Europe into Africa,'' he
said. ``I think that is really important for Africa and for the African
people. It puts pride back into Africa and pride back into the African
people.''
Peter Lemesurier
wrote:
>``It is a very deliberate pattern. It is not by any stretch of the
>imagination accidental. This is telling us people were capable of abstract
>thought. They were also capable of talking and thinking in the past, present
>and future, and in the abstract, of course,'' he added.
Shhh -- don't tell Jean! ;)
--
Peter
no
Peter Lemesurier wrote in message
<7m954u8r6l41tq5se...@4ax.com>...
They didn't have souls though. Guernon has scientific proof there was no
worship before 6000 years ago. Oh, that was writing determined if people had
souls. Guernon's theories are NEVER debunked. LOL
>--
>Peter