Evidence For Prehistoric Symbolic Activity

[Anonymous]

World's Oldest Art? Statuette, Between 500,000 and 300,000 Y

BBC News Website: 'World's Oldest Statue Found In Morocco' (23rd May 2003)

'Oldest sculpture' found in Morocco
By Paul Rincon, BBC Science

A 400,000-year-old stone object unearthed in Morocco could be the world's oldest attempt at sculpture.

Tan-Tan figurine/tools, Bednarik
The figurine was found 15 metres below ground
That is the claim of a prehistoric art specialist who says the ancient rock bears clear signs of modification by humans.

The object, which is around six centimetres in length, is shaped like a human figure, with grooves that suggest a neck, arms and legs. On its surface are flakes of a red substance that could be remnants of paint.

The object was found 15 metres below the eroded surface of a terrace on the north bank of the River Draa near the town of Tan-Tan. It was reportedly lying just a few centimetres away from stone handaxes in ground layers dating to the Middle Acheulian period, which lasted from 500,000 to 300,000 years ago.

Cultural controversy

The find is likely to further fuel a vociferous debate over the timing of humanity's discovery of symbolism. Hominids such as Homo heidelbergensis and Homo erectus, that were alive during the Acheulian period, are not thought to have been capable of the symbolic thought needed to create art.

Writing in the journal Current Anthropology, Robert Bednarik, president of the International Federation of Rock Art Organisations (IFRAO), suggests that the overall shape of the Tan-Tan object was fashioned by natural processes.

But he argues that conspicuous grooves on the surface of the stone, which appear to emphasise its humanlike appearance, are partially man-made. Mr Bednarik claims that some of these grooves were made by repeated battering with a stone tool to connect up natural depressions in the rock.

"What we've got is a piece of stone that is largely naturally shaped.

"It has some modifications, but they are more than modifications," Mr Bednarik told BBC News Online.

Mr Bednarik tried to replicate the markings on a similar piece of rock by hitting a stone flake with a "hammerstone" in the manner of a punch. He then compared the microscopic structure of the fractures with those of the Tan-Tan object.

Sceptic's view

However, Professor Stanley Ambrose of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, US, said he saw no evidence for tool marks and that, although the figure was evocative, it was most likely the result of "fortuitous natural weathering".

"[Mr Bednarik] has effectively presented all the information necessary to show this is a naturally weathered rock," Professor Ambrose told BBC News Online.

Professor Ambrose points to Mr Bednarik's observation that some rocks in the vicinity of the figure were weathered and even rounded from transport by water. Professor Ambrose believes that rocks and artefacts found at the site could have been disturbed by flowing water in the past.

Mr Bednarik also observes that flecks of a greasy substance containing iron and manganese on the surface of the stone could be red ochre, a substance used as paint by later humans.

"They [the specks] do not resemble corroded natural iron deposits, nor has any trace of this pigment been detected on any of the other objects I have examined from Tan-Tan," writes Mr Bednarik in his paper.

A 200,000-300,000-year-old stone object found at Berekhat Ram in Israel in 1986 has also been the subject of claims that it is a figurine. However, several other researchers later presented evidence to show that it was probably shaped by geological processes.

The Tan-Tan object was discovered in 1999, during a dig directed by Lutz Fiedler, the state archaeologist of Hesse in Germany.

 

[ramonmercado]

Colourful beginning for humanity
By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News, Norwich

This ochre has a groove where the powder has been rubbed out
Evidence is emerging from Africa that colours were being used in a symbolic way perhaps 200,000 years ago, a UK scientist working in the region claims.

Lawrence Barham has been studying tools and other artefacts left by ancient humans at a site in Zambia.

He says the range of mineral pigments, or ochres, found there hints at the use of paint, perhaps to mark the body.

If correct, it would push back the earliest known example of abstract thinking by at least 100,000 years.

Being able to conceptualise - the ability to let one thing represent another - was a giant leap in human evolution.

It was the mental activity that would eventually permit the development of sophisticated language and maths.

Language proxy

Shells from Israel that were strung as beads into a necklace or bracelet are widely accepted to be the oldest unequivocal evidence for such behaviour in humans.


'Oldest jewellery' revealed

But Dr Barham said it would be hard to accept that humans were not engaged in such activity much earlier in the archaeological record.

"As an archaeologist I am interested to find out where colour symbolism first appears because for colour symbolism to work it must be attached to language," the Liverpool University researcher said.

"Colour symbolism is an abstraction and we cannot work this abstraction without language; so this is a proxy for trying to find in the archaeological record real echoes for the emergence of language," Dr Barham told the British Association's Science Festival.

Archaeologists are a very cautious group

Dr Lawrence Barham, Liverpool University
Dr Barham's work over the past 10 years has majored on a site known as Twin Rivers, an old cave complex in the south of Zambia.

It was occupied by humans some 170,000-300,000 years ago. Which type of human is not clear, however; there is a fragment of bone which could belong to Homo heidelbergensis, the ancestor of modern humans, which like us had a large brain.

Bright range

Dr Barham said the tools found at Twin Rivers showed evidence of increasing sophistication, with simple handaxes giving way to small blades and flakes that had to be attached to handles.

The emergence of this "composite" technology coincided with the systematic use of ochres. Ochre is a soft stone that contains iron oxides; it comes in a range of colours.


At Twin Rivers there are red, yellow, brown, pink, black and even purple ochres.

If they are scraped, they will produce a powder which can be mixed with animal fat, for example, and used as a paint.

Dr Barham wonders if ancient humans in Zambia wiped these pigments on their bodies, using them in rituals - just as paints are still used in some cultures today, to mark the passage of warrior to elder, or the coming of age of boys and girls.

The problem is that there are purely functional uses for this material as well, to preserve hides and as a glue to bind stone blades to their shafts.

Chance creation

"If you were to argue that these oxides were purely functional and have no symbolic value, you have to explain away the range of colours that are being selected from different places in the landscape," said Lawrence Barham.

"Because if it was just for the iron element, any of them would do - the red, or the yellow. Some are closer to the site than others, so it seems that people were deliberately selecting the material for the colour property. That's my argument anyway."


The Zambian ochres could have been used to paint the skin

A number of claims have previously been made for conceptual thinking in humans hundreds of thousands of years ago. Many of these claims relate to pieces of rock that are said to represent the human form.

The Berekhat Ram figure from Israel and the Tan-Tan figure from Morocco, for example, have been presented as the work of Homo erectus.

But many sceptical researchers believe these items are merely accidents of nature; they are objects that have been moulded into human form through chance geological processes.

And Dr Barham knows he has some way to go to convince colleagues of his case.

"Archaeologists are a very cautious group. We set high standards for accepting an interpretation based on symbolism," he told BBC News.




http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5329486.stm

 

[ramonmercado]

Ancient Human Behavior Uncovered
24 Jun 2007

A major question in evolutionary studies today is how early did humans begin to think and behave in ways we would see as fundamentally modern" One index of 'behavioural modernity' is in the appearance of objects used purely as decoration or ornaments. Such items are widely regarded as having symbolic rather than practical value. By displaying them on the body as necklaces, pendants or bracelets or attached to clothing this also greatly increased their visual impact. The appearance of ornaments may be linked to a growing sense of self-awareness and identity amongst humans and any symbolic meanings would have been shared by members of the same group.

In Europe, amongst the oldest known symbolic ornaments are perforated animal teeth and shell beads, found in Upper Palaeolithic contexts that date to no more than 40,000 years ago. Such finds are apparently associated with both modern human and late Neanderthal sites. Together with cave paintings and engravings they offer the strongest indications that European societies of those times were capable of thinking in an abstract manner, and symbolising their ideas without relying on obvious links between a meaning and a sign. But, now, a growing body of evidence indicates symbolic material culture consisting of engravings, personal ornaments and systematic use of beads had emerged much earlier in Africa.

In a recently published paper in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of America) archaeologists from Morocco, UK, France and Germany, including researchers (M. Vanhaeren and F. d'Errico) funded by the Origin of Man, Language and Languages programme of the European Science Foundation, have been able to show that some of the earliest examples of bead making may date back as far as 82,000 years ago in North Africa. The evidence is in the form of deliberately perforated Nassarius marine shells, some still smeared with red ochre, that were found deeply stratified in archaeological levels in Grotte des Pigeons at Taforalt in northeastern Morocco. Led by Abdeljalil Bouzouggar of Rabat University and Nick Barton of Oxford University, a multidisciplinary team has been working in this massive limestone cave for the past five years. The finds come from a sequence of ashy deposits that have been independently dated by scientists at Oxford and in Australia using four different techniques which allow accurate age estimates for the layers with shells to be made. According to Nick Barton, the singular importance of these discoveries "is that they come from securely dated archaeological contexts and show unequivocally that beadmaking traditions existed in Africa that are twice as old as those in Europe".

The interpretation of the findings are still regarded as controversial by some who would question any appearance of modern symbolic activity before about 40-50,000 years ago. The archaeological dating evidence from the Moroccan site is however indisputable. At Taforalt, 13 Nassarius gibbosulus shell beads have been recovered in a deeply stratified occupation horizon towards the back of the cave. The finds were all made close together and sealed in lightly cemented ashy lenses (the remains of hearths) combined with abundant evidence of human activity in the form of lithic artefacts and animal bones. Amongst the stone tools associated with the shells are thin, bifacially worked foliate points typical of the Middle Palaeolithic Aterian technology, and probably used as spear heads. The bones of wild horse and African hare, found with them, represent human food residues.

Preservation of environmental evidence at Taforalt is also exceptionally good and reveals that at the time of the 'bead occupation' the landscape was dry, open and sparsely vegetated with some locally wooded habitat. This information is based on the charcoal identified in the hearth deposits of wood species including cedar that only grows in drier, upland environments in Morocco today. Small mammals, including desert-edge species such as jirds (brought into the cave by natural predators like owls) help prove that the climate was much drier at this point in the past.

The shell beads have been closely studied by Francesco d'Errico and Marian Vanhaeren of the French CNRS who have confirmed that they are a shallow marine species gathered from the beach, which even in the past lay more than 40 km from the cave. Once collected, the dead shells were then probably perforated, ochred and used as personal ornaments. Some of the beads show microscopic wear patterns that would suggest they were suspended from a necklace or bracelet. The application of red pigment may have been intended to give them added visual symbolic value. There can be no doubt at all that this was part of a very deliberate cultural practice.

The beads are all the more extraordinary because the same types of marine tick shell (Nassarius) were used for making beads at a number of other Middle Palaeolithic sites in Africa and the Near East. D'Errico points out that "beads in the same shell species as at Taforalt, have also been found at Djebbana (in Algeria) and Skhul (in the Near East), and Nassarius shells of the same genus were employed at Blombos Cave, a site located at the other end of the continent in South Africa". The new dating for Taforalt is older than at any of the other African sites and demonstrates that some time after 100,000 years ago personal ornamentation came into widespread use in Africa and the Near East. Preliminary work by the team has also shown that Nassarius shells are not isolated occurrences but are present at various other sites in Morocco. Dating evidence is still awaited for these and they may turn out to be as old or even older than Taforalt.

There is yet another twist: unlike in the Upper Palaeolithic of Europe, in which more than 150 bead types have been recorded in association with a single cultural grouping, only one or two different shell types are found at the much earlier sites stretching the length of Africa. It suggests that the role beads played in African and Near Eastern Homo sapiens societies may have been different from the one personal ornaments had in the Upper Palaeolithic of Europe. According to Vanhaeren the pattern seen in Africa "seems to match more closely the functions of beads among recent African hunter-gatherers where they were used as exchange media to reinforce reciprocity networks, thereby ensuring the survival of human groups in times of stress." These emblems of cultural identity may have been vital for guaranteeing group survival during periods of rapidly fluctuating climate and especially under intensely arid conditions of the kind recorded at Taforalt.

Contact: Sofia Valleley
European Science Foundation

Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medical ... wsid=74882

 

[ramonmercado]

First Painters May Have Been Neanderthal, Not Human
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/ ... paintings/
By Brandon KeimEmail Author June 14, 2012 | 2:10 pm | Categories: Anthropology, Brains and Behavior

European cave paintings are older than previously thought, raising the possibility that Neanderthals rather than Homo sapiens were the earliest painters.

That’s not yet certain: The paintings may have been made by humans at an unexpectedly early date, which would itself raise intriguing questions, though none so tantalizing as Neanderthal painters.

“It would not be surprising if the Neanderthals were indeed Europe’s first cave artists,” said João Zilhão, an archaeologist at Spain’s University of Barcelona, at a press conference on June 13.


Researchers led by Zilhão and Alistair Pike of the United Kingdom’s University of Bristol measured the ages of 50 paintings in 11 Spanish caves. The art, considered evidence of sophisticated symbolic thinking, has traditionally been attributed to modern humans, who reached Europe about 40,000 years ago.

Traditional methods of dating cave paintings, however, are relatively clumsy. Even the previous best technique — carbon dating, or translating amounts of carbon molecule decay into measurements of passing time — couldn’t discern differences of a few thousand years.

Instead of carbon, Pike and João Zilhão’s team calibrated their molecular clocks by studying mineral deposits that form naturally on cave surfaces, including paintings. The thicker the deposits, the older the painting. And as the researchers describe in a June 14 Science paper, some of the paintings are very old indeed.

"Anyone ... could walk into El Castillo cave and see a Neanderthal hand on the wall."
– Alistair Pike
Some handprint outlines are at least 37,000 years old. Several red circles are at least 41,000 years old and may be several thousand years older. That’s 10,000 years older than paintings in France, which until now were considered the oldest cave art.
If H. sapiens made the Spanish paintings, they would have needed to arrive in Europe already possessing a symbolic art tradition, something for which there’s no other evidence.

Alternatively, humans may have arrived in Europe and promptly learned to paint, raising the question of why such an important cultural leap occurred so suddenly, in that particular place. Maybe something about the environment, such as competition with Neanderthals, made symbolic thinking important.

Or — and this is still just a hypothesis, one that needs to be tested by dating of many more paintings — the artists were not human. Maybe they were Neanderthals.

If so, the paintings would be a pièce de résistance addition to a decade of Neanderthal research that’s showed how our closest evolutionary relatives, long considered less intelligent than humans, were truly sophisticated thinkers capable of symbolism, social planning and empathy. Paintings would provide the last bit of evidence needed to throw out the image of Neanderthals as archetypally dumb, Zilhao said.

“What’s really exciting about this possibility,” said Pike, “is that anyone, because it’s open to the public, could walk into El Castillo cave and see a Neanderthal hand on the wall.”

First Image: The Panel of Hands in El Castillo Cave, Spain. The hand stencils are dated to 37,300 years old and the red disk to 40,600 years old, making them the oldest European cave paintings. (Photo: Pedro Saura) [High-resolution]

Citation: “U-Series Dating of Paleolithic Art in 11 Caves in Spain.” By A. W. G. Pike, D. L. Hoffmann, M. García-Diez, P. B. Pettitt, J. Alcolea, R. De Balbín, C. González-Sainz, C. de las Heras, J. A. Lasheras, R. Montes, J. Zilhão. Science, Vol. 336 Issue 6087, June 15 2012.

 

[ramonmercado]

Did they have Post-Modernists as well?

Neanderthal abstract art found in Gibraltar cave

Discovery is a significant shift in our understanding of human development,

First Neanderthal etching is a #stoneagehashtag

The oldest known example of abstract art has been discovered in a cave in Gibraltar. The work, a series of criss-crossed lines cut into stone, was carried out 40,000 years ago.

The work was created by Neanderthals, close relatives of modern humans, who until now had been considered incapable of abstract thought and expression.

"Creating paintings or carvings in caves is seen as a cognitive step in human development," said Joaquín Rodríguez-Vidal of the University of Huelva – one of the researchers whose study of the cave was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.

"This behaviour was considered exclusive to modern humans and has been used as an argument to distinguish our direct ancestors from ancient man, including Neanderthals."

The discovery is "a major contribution to the redefinition of our perception of Neanderthal culture", prehistorian William Rendu of the French National Centre for Scientific Research told the Wall Street Journal. "It is new and even stronger evidence of the Neanderthal capacity for developing complex symbolic thought."

The work, uncovered in 2012 and measuring about one square metre, consists of eight lines cut deep into the rock that is arranged in two groups of three long cuts and two shorter ones. ...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/s ... altar-cave

 

[Kingsize Wombat]

...and in direct contradiction to the post above - the Nanderthals could paint, and maybe earlier than Homo Sapiens:

Neanderthal cave paintings discovered in Spain put Neanderthals in new light

THE world’s oldest known cave paintings were made by Neanderthals, not modern humans, suggesting our extinct cousins were far from being uncultured brutes.

A high-tech analysis of cave art at three Spanish sites, published Thursday, dates the paintings to at least 64,800 years ago, or 20,000 years before modern humans arrived in Europe from Africa.

That makes the cave art much older than previously thought and provides the strongest evidence yet that Neanderthals had the cognitive capacity to understand symbolic representation, a central pillar of human culture.

“What we’ve got here is a smoking gun that really overturns the notion that Neanderthals were knuckle-dragging cavemen,” said Alistair Pike, professor of archaeological sciences at England’s University of Southampton, who co-led the study.

A second related study published in Science Advances found that dyed and decorated marine shells from a different Spanish cave also dated back to pre- human times.

Taken together, the researchers said their work suggested that Neanderthals were “cognitively indistinguishable” from early modern humans.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/s...t/news-story/e2e87bc7026cbaafaf87971f1838584f

 

[ramonmercado]

Arty Denisovans?

Lines engraved between 125,000 and 105,000 years ago on two animal bones found in northern China held some sort of meaning for their makers, researchers say.

These ancient markings provide the oldest evidence of symbolic activity by humans or our close evolutionary relatives in East Asia, says a team led by archaeologists Zhanyang Li and Luc Doyon, both of Shandong University in Jinan, China. A mysterious Stone Age population called Denisovans, which had close genetic ties to Neandertals, may have carved sets of parallel lines into the pair of bone fragments, the scientists suggest in the August Antiquity.

Denisovans inhabited East Asia at the same time that someone carved lines into bones at northern China’s Lingjing site (SN: 3/2/19, p. 11). But either Homo sapiens or Neandertals, who also left behind Stone Age creations with apparent symbolic meanings (SN: 3/17/18, p. 6), might instead have modified the Lingjing bones.

“Nonetheless, the two objects from Lingjing suggest that symbolic capacities were within the realm of cognitive abilities of [Homo] species that lived before and during the evolution of Homo sapiens in Africa,” Doyon says.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/engraved-bones-reveal-symbolism-had-ancient-roots-east-asia