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Topic: Blombos cave

	Science News: Blombos Cave Art
		Stony Brook, NY (1/10/02)- The discovery of paleolithic art in a cave in South Africa is causing researchers to consider an older and less Euro-centric view of the origins of what is considered 'modern behavior'.
		The earlier discovery of Paleolithic art such as the beautiful cave painting in the caves of Lascaux and Chauvet along the northern slopes of the Pyrenees revolutionized ideas of what primitive human culture might have been capable of.
		The artifacts discovered in Blombos cave were made of the iron ore stone ochre.
	www.accessexcellence.org /WN/SU/caveart.html (615 words)

	ASU Research E-Magazine: Old Bone Tools Reveal Sharper Image of History
		For archeologists in Africa, Blombos Cave is a windfall.
		Other researchers participating in the Blombos Cave study included Francesco d’Errico, of the Institut de Prehistoire de Geologie du Quaternaire in France, Richard G. Milo, of the Department of Geography, Economics, and Anthropology at Chicago State University, and Royden Yates, of the Iziko-South African Museum in Cape Town, South Africa.
		Blombos Cave’s bones were preserved because the earth surrounding them contained crushed sea shells.
	researchmag.asu.edu /stories/bonetools.html (1764 words)

	Blombos Introduction (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Blombos Cave (BBC), situated near Still Bay in the southern Cape (34025’S, 21013’E), is some 100 m from the coast and 35 m above sea level.
		In the MSA levels the matrix is composed mainly of aeolian, marine-derived dune sand, blown in through the cave entrance and is intercalated with marine shell, decomposed humic materials and limestone, and wind-borne halites.
		Blombos Cave, southern Cape, South Africa: Preliminary report on the 1992 – 1999 excavations of the Middle Stone Age levels.
	www.svf.uib.no /sfu/blombos/The_Site.html (1138 words)

	No. 1908: Blombos Cave
		Blombos Cave overlooks the Indian Ocean, on the south coast of South Africa.
		Now Blombos Cave has moved the rise of Modern Humans back to a time long before the Neanderthals vanished.
		The cave has also yielded up a seventy-five-thousand-year-old snail-shell necklace -- the oldest ever found.
	www.uh.edu /engines/epi1908.htm (648 words)

	News in Science - Old beads push back birth of creativity - 16/04/2004
		The 41, pea-sized beads were found in a cave overlooking the Indian Ocean in South Africa and were made of tiny shells deliberately pierced and strung, lead author Professor Christopher Henshilwood and colleagues report in the latest issue of the journal Science.
		The Blombos Cave beads may have been used as jewellery, to decorate clothing or even as an early type of bookkeeping, said Henshilwood, who is program director of the Blombos Cave Project.
		Sand in the cave was also dated and the different levels do not seem to have been mixed up; so the beads were not, for instance, made a few thousand years ago and then buried in older layers.
	www.abc.net.au /science/news/stories/s1088880.htm (685 words)

	50/50 - SA's top enviro tv programme (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		In a small cave high up on an ancient dune on the Southern Cape’s coast, Prof Chris Henshilwood and his team have been slowly and painstakingly, brushing away the sands of time, to reveal evidence that modern human behaviour did not, as had long been believed, evolved in Europe.
		Blombos is particularly special because it has been extremely well preserved.
		Blombos has placed South Africa, and particularly the Southern Cape as the origin of modern man. Yet very little has been paid for this honourable status.
	www.5050.co.za /inserts.asp?ID=5679 (792 words)

	South African Museum - Past Newsletters (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		The first hint of the remarkable treasures we would find at Blombos Cave came in 1993 when finely made bifacial stone tools (possibly spearheads), known as Still Bay points, were found in association with excellently preserved animal remains.
		In essence, the Blombos Cave inhabitants were behaviourally 'modern' at a time when Neanderthals still roamed Europe and the first H. sapiens were just making their way out of Africa.
		It is perhaps appropriate that, at the start of the new millenium, the Blombos Cave Project is providing conclusive evidence that the earliest evidence for modern human behaviour is in Africa and that Africa can fittingly be regarded as the true cradle of modern humankind.
	www.museums.org.za /sam/muse/9904.htm (529 words)

	Geometric imagery in South African rock art
		Blombos Cave, situated on the southern Cape coast of South Africa, has yielded evidence for the practice of rock engraving approximately 77,000 years before the present (B.P.) (Henshilwood et al 2002).
		The recent discoveries from Blombos indicate that rock engraving was undertaken by "anatomically modern" Homo sapiens during the Middle Stone Age.
		One possibility is that geometric grids, of the kind found in engraved slabs from Wonderwerk and Blombos Caves, were conceptually associated with beliefs linked to altered states of consciousness.
	www.nfi.org.za /palaeo/blombos.htm (532 words)

	Shell beads from South African cave show modern human behavior 75,000 years ago
		A few years ago, Blombos excavators found chunks of inscribed ochre and shaped bone tools that challenged the then-dominant theory of behavioral evolution, which held that humans were anatomically modern at least 160,000 years ago but didn't develop critical modern behaviors until some punctuating event 40,000 or 50,000 years ago.
		To Henshilwood, this clearly indicates that the cave's early inhabitants used symbols in modern fashion.
		Ochre and bone tool findings at Blombos Cave are described in an earlier NSF press release: http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/02/pr0202.htm.
	www.eurekalert.org /pub_releases/2004-04/nsf-sbf041304.php (799 words)

	Beads shed light on symbolic thought - Science - www.theage.com.au
		The 41 pea-sized snail shells, with holes drilled through the middle for thread or other material, were buried in sand at Blombos Cave near the South African coast.
		Two ostrich eggshell beads found in the cave, which may be from the same period, are being dated.
		The Blombos beads were found in clusters of similar size, shade and wear-use pattern.
	www.theage.com.au /articles/2004/04/16/1082055649754.html (618 words)

	Guardian \| World's oldest jewellery found in cave
		Around 75,000 years ago, in a cave near the southern Cape shoreline in South Africa, a human drilled tiny holes into the shells of snails and strung them as beads to make the oldest known jewellery - by at least 30,000 years.
		The shells appear to have been selected according to size, and they must have been brought to the Blombos cave from rivers a dozen miles away.
		The Blombos cave discovery however, means that the theorists will have to think again.
	www.guardian.co.uk /print/0,3858,4902842-110427,00.html (511 words)

	Oldest-jewelry
		The discovery was made at Blombos Cave, on the shore of the Indian Ocean 200 miles east of Cape Town.
		From the cave art evidence, scholars have usually inferred that the transition to modern human behavior occurred late and rather abruptly.
		So the Blombos people, it seems, invested in the shell of a common snail something of their mind and spirit, perhaps to project relationships, status and self-image.
	users.telenet.be /african-shop/oldest-jewelry.htm (1180 words)

	Ancient stone marks may roll back date of 'modern behavior'
		Blombos indicates that modern behavior may have evolved concurrently and spread the same way.
		Since the design is a geometric pattern apparently unrelated to any natural phenomenon, Henshilwood asserted that the fragments show that the Blombos people were "capable of abstract thought, and of expressing it in engravings." Such behavior, regarded by scholars as clearly "modern," didn't appear in Europe until much later, he added.
		Brooks also acknowledged that "at a certain point in time" the Blombos people may have needed innovative technology, "but later they didn't" need it or simply no longer had it "for whatever reason." Such cultural blind alleys frequently occur in history, she noted.
	www.trussel.com /prehist/news277.htm (703 words)

	The art behind modern behavior \| csmonitor.com
		The finds at the Blombos Caves on South Africa's southern coast, however, show that modern human behavior may have first appeared in Africa far earlier.
		Among the important finds at Blombos is a large cache of 28 bone tools, which are not usually found in African sites more than 40,000 years old.
		Among the most spectacular of these finds are the cave paintings in the Grotte Chauvet caves in France, which at 32,000 years old are claimed by the French to be the oldest human art ever found.
	www.csmonitor.com /2002/0321/p13s01-stss.htm (952 words)

	afrol News - South Africa "cradle of human culture"
		The perforations of these Nassarius shells found at Blombos Cave show wear marks, indicating they were used as beads, according to Mr Henshilwood.
		Humans occupied Blombos Cave, on the shore of the Indian Ocean, 75,000 years ago.
		The Blombos Cave is located in the nature reserve De Hoop, on the eastern coast of the Cape peninsula, only some four hours drive from Cape Town.
	www.afrol.com /printable_article/12095 (850 words)

	Ooparts & Ancient High Technology--Those Sophisticated Cave Men--Evidence of Noah's Flood? Page 10
		"The Blombos Cave beads present absolute evidence for perhaps the earliest storage of information outside the human brain," says Christopher Henshilwood, program director of the Blombos Cave Project and professor at the Centre for Development Studies of the University of Bergen in Norway.
		The shells, found in clusters of up to 17 beads, are from a tiny mollusk scavenger, Nassarius kraussianus, which lives in estuaries.
		NSF is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, with an annual budget of nearly $5.58 billion.
	www.s8int.com /sophis10.html (1481 words)

	BBC NEWS \| Science/Nature \| Cave yields 'earliest jewellery' (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Shell beads found in Blombos Cave on the southern tip of the continent are 75,000 years old, scientists say.
		Traces of red ochre on the shells also indicate that either the beads themselves or the surfaces against which they were worn were coated with the iron oxide pigment.
		It was at Blombos in 2002 that some of the same scientists announced the discovery of chunks of inscribed ochre and shaped bone tools.
	news.bbc.co.uk /1/hi/sci/tech/3629559.stm (610 words)

	Oldest Jewelry? "Beads" Discovered in African Cave (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		If shells (top) from a tiny mollusk found in Blombos Cave (bottom) in South Africa prove to have been used as beads, humans may have been capable of symbolic thinking earlier than thought, according to researchers.
		By contrast, the date of the Blombos artifacts is fairly certain, but some question exists as to whether they are actually beads.
		Blombos has bone points—you have the famous bone harpoons at Katanga [dated to about 90,000 years old]—long before the creative explosion of 40,000 to 45,000 years ago.
	www.freerepublic.com /focus/f-news/1118872/posts (2208 words)

	BBC News \| SCI/TECH \| 'Oldest' prehistoric art unearthed
		The abstract art was found on two pieces of ochre in a cave on the southern Cape shore of the Indian Ocean.
		The engraved ochre pieces were recovered from Middle Stone Age layers at Blombos Cave, 290 kilometres (180 miles) east of Cape Town, and are at least 70,000 years old.
		Blombos Cave is 290 kilometres (180 miles) east of Cape Town
	news.bbc.co.uk /1/hi/sci/tech/1753326.stm (582 words)

	New Finds at Blombos Cave
		IN a cramped cave that looks out across the swell of the Indian Ocean, South African archaeologists are unearthing evidence of Middle Stone Age people well ahead of their time.
		The cave is high in a limestone cliff on a wild stretch of the Southern Cape coast of South Africa.
		The fish in the cave have been identified by Cedric Poggenpoel as the remains of only a few species, so are likely to have been caught.
	cogweb.ucla.edu /ep/Blombos.html (1298 words)

	New Scientist Breaking News - Ancient shell jewellery hints at language
		Now Christopher Henshilwood of the University of Bergen in Norway and his colleagues have analysed 41 of the shells, which were found in clusters of similar shade and size.
		That is compelling evidence, says Henshilwood, that the cave dwellers deliberately pierced the shells so they could string them together into necklaces or bracelets.
		Blombos cave is famous for its abstract engravings on ochre from the same time period, and together with the beadwork, this suggests to Henshilwood that its inhabitants had a complex sense of symbolism.
	www.newscientist.com /article.ns?id=dn4892 (548 words)

	Blombos cave Information (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
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	cave.5infolock7.info /missouri-caves/blombos-cave.html (115 words)

	Blombos Introduction
		An early bone tool industry from the Middle Stone Age, Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for the origins of modern human behaviour, symbolism and language.
		Blombos Cave, southern Cape, South Africa: Preliminary report on the 1992-1999 excavations of the Middle Stone Age levels.
		MAREAN, C. A critique of the evidence for scavenging by Neanderthals and early modern humans: new data from Kobeh Cave (Zagros Mousterian) and Die Kelders (South Africa Middle Stone Age).
	www.svf.uib.no /sfu/blombos/References.html (3589 words)

	Blombos Cave stone engraving South Africa
		Small and portable, this red ochre stone is engraved with what must be "tally" marks.
		It is one of two such stones recently found in the Blombos Cave in South Africa and have been dated as being 77,000 years old, making them the oldest form of recorded counting ever found.
		The stone is worn which probably indicated that it wasconstantly handled over a period of time, how long is impossible to tell.
	www.bradshawfoundation.com /blombos-cave.html (176 words)

	Humans "Get Smart" in Africa
		The authors believe that these intentionally carved lines might be symbolic based upon the behaviors that are shown by other artifacts in Blombos Cave.
		These artifacts include bone tools that were made in a complex process that the authors think must have involved spoken language.
		Also, two pieces of ochre have been found in Blombos Cave that have abstract designs engraved on the surface.
	www.mnh.si.edu /anthro/humanorigins/whatshot/2001/wh2001-1.htm (484 words)

	DATING AND STRATIGRAPHY OF MIDDLE STONE AGE DEPOSITS AT BLOMBOS CAVE, SOUTH AFRICA, USING AMINO ACID RACEMIZATION IN ...
		Blombos Cave is an important Middle Stone Age (MSA) locality on the south coast of South Africa at 34°25’S, 21°13’E, at 35 m above sea level.
		Excavations by C.S. Henshilwood, J.C. Sealy and others since 1993 have yielded an extraordinary series of finely made bone tools, and engraved objects including ocher fragments with the oldest known complex geometric incised designs.
		Optcal dating of dune sand from Blombos Cave, South Africa: I-multiple grain data and II-single grain data.
	gsa.confex.com /gsa/2003AM/finalprogram/abstract_59906.htm (450 words)

	Staff
		He now directs the Blombos Cave Project, a long-term major archaeological research project in the southern Cape, South Africa that is contributing significantly to the international debate on the origins of modern human behaviour.
		Henshilwood has lectured widely in Europe, America and southern Africa on the origins of modern humans and the findings at Blombos Cave.
		She is a research member of the Blombos Cave Project and has excavated at Blombos Cave and other sites during the past five years.
	www.asu.edu /clas/anthropology/cape/Staff.htm (518 words)

	Shell Beads From South African Cave Show Modern Human Behavior 75,000 Years Ago
		Abstract Engravings Show Modern Behavior Emerged Earlier Than Previously Thought (January 14, 2002) -- People were able to think abstractly, and accordingly behave as modern humans much earlier than previously thought, according to a paper appearing in...
		Earliest European Modern Humans Found (September 24, 2003) -- A research team co-directed by Erik Trinkaus, professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, has dated a human jawbone from a Romanian bear hibernation cave to between 34,000 and...
		Indonesian New Guinea Inhabited For More Than Ten Thousand Years (May 20, 1998) -- Recent excavations in the interior of the Indonesian part of New Guinea, Irian Jaya (West Irian), have shown that people have lived there since the end of the Pleistocene epoch, in other words for at...
	www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2004/04/040416014444.htm (881 words)

	www.primeorigins.co.za \| news World's oldest artwork found on South African coastline
		Click here for more details of the Blombos Cave dig.
		The latest Blombos Cave finds consist of pieces of engraved ochre and finely crafted bone tools.
		The discoveries by the Cape Field Team led by Dr Chris Henshilwood and supported by the State University of Stony Brook, New York, lend weight to the "African Eve" theory.
	www.primeorigins.co.za /news/879864.htm (278 words)

	Miami Times: Blombos Cave reveals proof...Mankind came out of Africa with modern skills@ HighBeam Research (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
		Miami Times: Blombos Cave reveals proof...Mankind came out of Africa with modern skills@ HighBeam Research
		Blombos Cave reveals proof...Mankind came out of Africa with modern skills
		More than 70,000 years ago, people occupied a cave in a high Cliff facing
	www.highbeam.com /library/doc0.asp?docid=1P1:79462702&refid=ink_tptd_np (200 words)

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