Image: �SCIENCE, 2002
"For all the attributes that humans share with other animals, there is a trait that clearly sets us apart: our reliance on symbolism. Exactly where and when in our lineage this and other aspects of modern human behavior emerged, however, have proved difficult to pinpoint. Now new findings may help to close that gap. According to a report published online ... by the journal Science, excavations at a South African cave site have turned up two pieces of ochre bearing symbolic engravings that date back ... to the so-called Middle Stone Age (MSA)".
"Ochre, a form of iron ore, appears relatively frequently among the scraps of culture left behind by our Stone Age predecessors.... But the newly discovered pieces bear unequivocal signs of use as symbolic objects. Christopher S. Henshilwood of the Iziko Museums of Cape Town and his colleagues report that both specimens bear cross-hatched markings that appear to have been produced through a deliberate sequence of choices".
"'The Blombos Cave motifs suggest arbitrary conventions unrelated to reality-based cognition ... and they may have been constructed with symbolic intent, the meaning of which is now unknown' the authors note. 'These finds demonstrate that ochre use in the MSA was not exclusively utilitarian and arguably, the transmission and sharing of the meaning of the engravings relied on fully syntactical language.'"
Ancient Engravings Push Back Origin Of Abstract Thought, Kate Wong, www.sciam.com, January 11, 2002
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