#blombos cave

[annemarieyeretzian]

PREHISTORIC ART 🦣 love, ur local art mom 🩵

disclaimers and more information under the cut ✂️

hi I’m annemarie and I’m an art historian! not adjuncting for the first time in five years was rly hard for me so I threw some slides together so I could still (sort of) teach the same material as my language of art class but a) I threw these slides together for instagram so space was/is limited and b) language of art is a ten week run through art history so I’m presenting only the most accessible information here – there’s so much more to this art period! – please don’t expect it to be comprehensive and please do ask if you have any questions!

oh p.s. my first ever class of art history students came up with the name ‘art mom’ for me at the end of the quarter and yes it does make me cry if I think about it too long thanks so much for asking

[celestialmazer]

Ancient 'paint factory' unearthed - BBC News

Ancient 'paint factory' unearthed

Toolkits used by humans 100,000 years ago to make paint are found in the famous archaeological site of Blombos Cave in South Africa.

As far as I'm concerned this is proof that art is a keystone of what it means to be human. The compulsion to create art a fundamental spark in the evolution of our brains.

Click link for video

Ancient "paint factory" unearthed - article by Jonathan Amos

Science correspondent, BBC News published 13 October 2011

" The kits used by humans 100,000 years ago to make paint have been found at the famous archaeological site of Blombos Cave in South Africa.

The hoard includes red and yellow pigments, shell containers, and the grinding cobbles and bone spatulas to work up a paste - everything an ancient artist might need in their workshop.

This extraordinary discovery is reported in the journal Science.

It is proof, say researchers, of our early ancestors' complexity of thought.

"This is significant because it is pushing back the boundaries of our understanding of when Homo sapiens - people like us - first became modern," said Prof Christopher Henshilwood from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

"These finds indicate that humans were certainly thinking in a modern way, in a way that is cognitively advanced, at least 100,000 years ago," he told BBC News.

Blombos Cave on the southern Cape Coast, 300km east of Cape Town, has been giving up remarkable archaeological treasures for more than 20 years.

Scientists have been scraping down through its sandy sediments to find all manner of artefacts left by the Middle Stone Age people who occupied the limestone cavity.

In 2002, researchers described 70,000-year-old blocks of ochre. This soft stone contains iron oxides that can be used as a pigment, or colouring agent.

But apart from some engravings on the blocks, there was little hard evidence to determine the precise purpose of the Blombos ochre. The new items seem to have had a much more obvious use - as the equipment to process paints.

The finds include abalone shells with ochre residues inside. There are tools made of quartzite that were presumably employed to hammer and grind ochre into a powder in the shells. And there is evidence that charcoal and oil from seal bones were being added to the mix. It seems bone implements were also being used to turn and lift the paint pastes.

All these artefacts were found together, almost as if someone had put them down intending to retrieve them at a later time, but then never coming back. Sands blown in through the cave entrance subsequently buried the kits and locked them away until they were excavated in 2008.

In the intervening three years, the finds have been subjected to a series of tests and assessments.

Ochre can have non-artistic applications such as an additive in glues, but co-researcher Francesco d'Errico from the University of Bordeaux says the analysis of the residues in the shells points strongly to the production of paints.

"The absence of a resin or a wax suggests the ochre was not used to make a glue or a mastic. We think it may have been used to make a paint or a design," he explained.

Prof Henshilwood added: "It's possible the paint was used to paint bodies, human skin. It could have been used to paint designs on leather or other objects. It could have been used for paintings on walls, although the surfaces of southern African caves are not ideal for the long-term preservation of rock art."

The mere fact though that paints are being manufactured in a systematic way is indicative of a level of advanced thinking.

It would have required a high degree of planning to bring together all of the elements of the kits; and if art really was the purpose, it suggests the cave dwellers of Blombos were capable of symbolic thought - the ability to let one thing represent another in the mind.

This ability has been posited as the giant leap in human evolution that set our species apart from the rest of the animal world.

Understanding when and where this behaviour first emerged is a key quest for scientists studying human origins.

Until now, arguably the earliest examples of conceptual thinking were the pieces of shell jewellery discovered at Skhul Cave in Israel and from Oued Djebbana in Algeria.

These artefacts have been dated to 90,000-100,000 years ago. The Blombos paint kits now sit alongside these other finds.

Prof Chris Stringer from London's Natural History Museum commented: "Twenty or 30 years ago, there was a view that Europe was really the place where all the big action was taking place - wonderful painted caves 30,000-35,000 years ago, and people decorating their bodies.

"We now know that this behaviour goes back far further in Africa; it goes back to 100,000 years, perhaps even more than 100,000 years.

"People were starting to express social identity in completely new ways. And there is a view that this behaviour is linked with complex language. So, it may indicate these people were communicating in a fully modern way," he told BBC News.

[email protected] "

[stoneagefairy]

Engraved ochre from Blombos Cave, South Africa - kind of paleolithic crayon

[archaeologicalnews]

Drawing on a piece of silcrete found in Blombos Cave predates previous human-made drawings by at least 30,000 years

The earliest evidence of a drawing made by humans has been found in Blombos Cave in the southern Cape in South Africa.

The drawing, which consists of three red lines cross-hatched with six separate lines, was intentionally drawn on a smooth silcrete flake about 73,000 years ago. This predates previous drawing from Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia by at least 30,000 years.

The drawing on the silcrete flake was a surprising find by archaeologist Dr. Luca Pollarolo, an honorary research fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), while he painstakingly sifted through thousands of similar flakes that were excavated from Blombos Cave at the Wits University satellite laboratory in Cape Town. Read more.

[windheldland]

John Wallmart is a five metre large ball of an unidentified metal with two floating three-fingered hands. A face has been crudely drawn onto his front in marker(?) which can move around like a human face. He is the protagonist of the cartoon series Blombo's Cave, although it is possible that he has existed prior to his creation by Enciph Corporation.

John Wallmart levitates about two centimetres off the ground, allowing for movement without the destruction of public property. He is currently contained in a superposition inside the Media Department's filming complex and the Blombo's Cave theme park in suburban Evertide.

John Wallmart has given several country leaders war funds and has publicly stated to support genocide. The Federal Ministry of Investigation has him in their List of People of Interest. He is a confirmed war criminal, necrophile and serial killer.

John Wallmart is known for his catchphrase: "Hi, I'm John Wallmart."

[windheldland]

I just watched the new episode of Blombo's Cave... not a huge of John Wallmart genociding all of Kirsh because Pei was too chartreuse. what do you think? Also I think the writers are forgetting about how Blombo is blind...... season 105 fell off honestly

[yacheika213]

A sketch of the Blombos Cave image of the Southern Cape, thought to be 70,000 years old

Source: “Painting and Understanding Abstract Art” by John Lowry (2010)

- У меня на левом заднем крыле гвоздем процарапано неприличное слово. - Подождите... Так... Какое?

[britishmuseum]

75,000-year-old shell beads

These shell beads were made about 75,000 years ago and are among the world’s earliest examples of jewellery. They are from Blombos Cave, South Africa, and are coloured with red ochre. Each one has a hole, and this, along with other evidence, suggests they were strung together and worn as a necklace. Ochre is earth or rock that has a high concentration of iron, and has been used for tens of thousands of years as an ingredient for paint. Other objects from Blombos Cave included engraved ochre, bone points, and paint-making kits. Together these objects represent some of the earliest artistic traditions in the world.

Discover this nation’s fascinating history in our special exhibition South Africa: the art of a nation (27 October 2016 – 26 February 2017).

Exhibition sponsored by Betsy and Jack Ryan

Logistics partner IAG Cargo

Blombos Cave shell beads, on loan from Iziko Museums of South Africa, Social History Collections.