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Blombos Cave

Blombos Cave
Blombos Cave
Blombos Cave
Blombos Cave
Blombos Cave
Blombos Cave
Blombos Cave
Blombos Cave (Western Cape)
LocationBlombos Private Nature Reserve, Heidelberg, Western Cape, South Africa
Coordinates34°24′52″S 21°13′21″E / 34.41444°S 21.22250°E / -34.41444; 21.22250

Blombos Cave is an archaeological site located in Blombos Private Nature Reserve, about 300 km east of Cape Town on the Southern Cape coastline, South Africa. The cave contains Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits currently dated at between c. 100,000 and 70,000 years Before Present (BP), and a Late Stone Age sequence dated at between 2000 and 300 years BP.[1][2][3][4] The cave site was first excavated in 1991 and field work has been conducted there on a regular basis since 1997, and is ongoing.[5]

The excavations at Blombos Cave have yielded important new information on the behavioural evolution of anatomically modern humans. The archaeological record from this cave site has been central in the ongoing debate on the cognitive and cultural origin of early humans and to the current understanding of when and where key behavioural innovations emerged among Homo sapiens in southern Africa during the Late Pleistocene.[6][7][8] Archaeological material and faunal remains recovered from the Middle Stone Age phase in Blombos Cave – dated to ca. 100,000–70,000 years BP – are considered to represent greater ecological niche adaptation, a more diverse set of subsistence and procurements strategies, adoption of multi-step technology and manufacture of composite tools, stylistic elaboration, increased economic and social organisation and occurrence of symbolically mediated behaviour.

The most informative archaeological material from Blombos Cave includes engraved ochre,[9][10] engraved bone[11] ochre processing kits,[3] marine shell beads,[12][13][14] refined bone and stone tools[15][16][17][18][19] and a broad range of terrestrial and marine faunal remains, including shellfish, birds, tortoise and ostrich egg shell, and mammals of various sizes.[20][21][22] These findings, together with subsequent re-analysis and excavation of other Middle Stone Age sites in southern Africa, have resulted in a paradigm shift with regard to the understanding of the timing and location of the development of modern human behaviour.

On 29 May 2015 Heritage Western Cape formally protected the site as a provincial heritage site.[23]

Cross-hatching done in ochre on a stone fragment found at Blombos Cave is believed to be the earliest known drawing done by a human in the world.[24]

  1. ^ Tribolo, C., et al. (2006) TL dating of burnt lithics from Blombos Cave (South Africa): further evidence for the antiquity of modern human behaviour. Archaeometry, 48, 341–357.
  2. ^ Jacobs, Z., et al. (2006) Extending the chronology of deposits at Blombos Cave, South Africa, back to 140 ka using optical dating of single and multiple grains of quartz. Journal of Human Evolution, 51, 255–73.
  3. ^ a b Henshilwood, Christopher S., et al. (2011) A 100,000-Year-Old Ochre-Processing Workshop at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Science, 334, 219–222, doi:10.1126/science.1211535.
  4. ^ Jacobs, Zenobia, et al. (2013) An improved OSL chronology for the Still Bay layers at Blombos Cave, South Africa: further tests of single-grain dating procedures and a re-evaluation of the timing of the Still Bay industry across southern Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science, 40, 579–594.
  5. ^ Henshilwood, Christopher S. (2008) Holocene prehistory of the Southern Cape, South Africa : excavations at Blombos Cave and the Blombosfontein Nature Reserve, Oxford, England, Archaeopress.
  6. ^ McBrearty, Sally & Brooks, Alison S. (2000) The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior. Journal of Human Evolution, 39, 453–563.
  7. ^ Henshilwood, Christopher S. & Marean, Curtis W. (2003) The Origin of Modern Human Behavior: Critique of the Models and Their Test Implications. Current Anthropology, 44, 627–651.
  8. ^ Mellars, P. (2007) Rethinking the human revolution : new behavioural and biological perspectives on the origin and dispersal of modern humans, Cambridge, UK, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research : Distributor : David Brown Bk, Co.
  9. ^ Henshilwood, Christopher S.; d'Errico, Francesco; Watts, Ian (2009). "Engraved ochres from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa". Journal of Human Evolution. 57 (1): 27–47. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.01.005. PMID 19487016.
  10. ^ Henshilwood, Christopher S., et al. (2002) Emergence of Modern Human Behavior: Middle Stone Age Engravings from South Africa. Science, 295, 1278–1280.
  11. ^ d'Errico, Francesco, Henshilwood, Christopher S. & Nilssen, Peter (2001) An Engraved Bone Fragment From c. 70,000-Year-Old Middle Stone Age Levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa: Implications for the Origin of Symbolism and Language. Antiquity, 75, 309–318.
  12. ^ Henshilwood, Christopher S., et al. (2004) Middle Stone Age shell beads from South Africa. Science, 304, 404.
  13. ^ d'Errico, Francesco, et al. (2005) Nassarius kraussianus shell beads from Blombos Cave: evidence for symbolic behaviour in the Middle Stone Age. Journal of Human Evolution, 48, 3–24.
  14. ^ Vanhaeren, Marian, et al. (2013) Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 64, 500–517.
  15. ^ Henshilwood, Christopher S. & Sealy, Judith (1997) Bone Artefacts from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, Southern Cape, South Africa. Current Anthropology, 38, 890–895.
  16. ^ Henshilwood, Christopher S., et al. (2001a) An early bone tool industry from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for the origins of modern human behaviour, symbolism and language. Journal of Human Evolution, 41, 631–78.
  17. ^ d'Errico, Francesco & Henshilwood, Christopher S. (2007) Additional evidence for bone technology in the southern African Middle Stone Age. Journal of Human Evolution, 52, 142–63.
  18. ^ Villa, P., et al. (2009) The Still Bay points of Blombos Cave (South Africa). Journal of Archaeological Science, 36, 441–460.
  19. ^ Mourre, Vincent, Villa, Paola & Henshilwood, Christopher S. (2010) Early Use of Pressure Flaking on Lithic Artifacts at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Science, 330, 659–662.
  20. ^ van Niekerk, Karen Loise (2011) Marine fish exploitation during the Middle and Later Stone Age of South Africa. University of Cape Town.
  21. ^ Henshilwood, Christopher S., et al. (2001b) Blombos Cave, Southern Cape, South Africa: Preliminary Report on the 1992–1999 Excavations of the Middle Stone Age Levels. Journal of Archaeological Science, 28, 421–448.
  22. ^ Thompson, Jessica C. & Henshilwood, Christopher S. (2011) Taphonomic analysis of the Middle Stone Age larger mammal faunal assemblage from Blombos Cave, southern Cape, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 60, 746–767.
  23. ^ Provincial Notice 163/2015, Province of the Western Cape Provincial Gazette, No 739, Cape Town: 29 May 2015
  24. ^ Sample, Ian (12 September 2018). "Earliest known drawing found on rock in South African cave". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 September 2018.

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