BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Colourful beginning for humanity
Rated • 1 review • archaeology • bbc.co.uk
via rieraci's SU pages, in BBC OnlineEvidence 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.
URL: Colors were used in a symbolic way 200,000 years ago.
URL: Oldest jewellery' revealed
This ochre has a groove where the powder has been rubbed out
The dating of the first decorating objects and the use of colors has been pushed further down the road of our history. This seems to indicate that humans were using "visuals" far earlier than had been taught since recently...
