This deliberate mixture \u201cimplies that people at the time had complex cognition,\u201d said\u00a0Lyn Wadley<\/a>, an archaeologist at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Wadley studies early ochre paint but was not involved in the research. \u201cThey could .\u2009.\u2009. multitask and think in abstract terms,\u201d Wadley said.<\/p>\n The cave, called\u00a0Blombos<\/a>, sits in a cliff on the coast of South Africa about 180 miles east of Cape Town. It shows signs of human use starting 130,000 years ago. Protected from wind and rain and close to seafood, antelope and other game, the cave apparently made for an inviting stopover for wave after wave of nomadic hunter-gatherers.<\/p>\n Henshilwood, who splits his time between the University of Bergen in Norway and Witwatersrand, began excavating Blombos in 1992, digging through layers of animal bones, crustacean shells and other evidence of occupation during the Paleolithic, or Stone Age.<\/p>\n But the deepest layer, which the team reached in 2008, was different. Instead of scattered remains, two tidy \u201ctool kits\u201d emerged, covered by sand. Both included fist-size abalone shells and lay in neat piles.<\/p>\n In one kit, a round stone sat inside the shell. Six other grinding or pounding stones were arrayed around the shell and were probably used to smash the ochre. A small slab \u2014 a grinding stone \u2014 rested on top of the assemblage. A shoulder blade from a seal revealed evidence of heating and marrow extraction, and paint at the end of a thin forearm bone from a dog or a wolf showed that it was used to spread the paint, Henshilwood said.<\/p>\n Ochre comes in colors from mellow yellow to raging red. Whoever made the ancient paint selected only the brightest of reds.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could\u2019ve been ornamental,\u201d Henshilwood said. Even today, groups in southern Africa paint their faces and torsos with ochre to identify which group they belong to or whether they\u2019re married. Ochre paint can also serve as a sunscreen and an insect repellant.<\/p>\n For whatever reasons the paint was made, early humans had a fondness for ochre. \u201cNearly all\u201d South African sites from the Paleolithic show ochre, and it has been found at ancient sites in the Middle East and Europe, Henshilwood said. But all of those finds are tens of thousands of years younger than the Blombos paint kits.<\/p>\n The discovery adds to other early artistic treasures at Blombos, including 49 beads smeared with ochre and large pieces of ochre inscribed with cross-hatch patterns that date to 77,000 years ago \u2014 widely recognized as the oldest known art.<\/p>\n The cave walls show no paintings, but quickly accreting limestone would have obscured any obvious signs, Henshilwood said.<\/p>\n He plans to return with lights that can detect traces of ochre paint. If he finds any on the walls, it would push deeper into the past solid evidence of the human artistic impulse. The oldest known cave paintings, in France, are about 35,000 years old.<\/p>\n By\u00a0Brian Vastag<\/a>,\u00a0Published:<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n South African cave yields paint from dawn of humanity<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/rf\/image_606w\/2010-2019\/WashingtonPost\/2011\/10\/13\/Health-Environment-Science\/Images\/henshilwood9HR.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nA hundred thousand years ago, not long after\u00a0Homo sapiens\u00a0<\/em>emerged as a species, a craftsman \u2014 or woman \u2014 sat in a cave overlooking the Indian Ocean, crushed a soft rusty red rock, mixed it inside a shell with charcoal and animal marrow, and dabbed it on something \u2014 maybe a face, maybe a wall.<\/p>\n