The Oldest Drawing
In a cave on the South African coast, archaeologists found a stone with a crosshatch drawn in ochre 73,000 years ago.
What was reported
Blombos Cave, in a cliff on South Africa's southern coast, has been excavated since 1991 by the archaeologist Christopher Henshilwood and colleagues. It has yielded engraved pieces of ochre, shell beads and tools from roughly 100,000 to 70,000 years ago.
In 2018 the team announced a small flake of stone with a crosshatched pattern drawn in red ochre, about 73,000 years old, the oldest known drawing made by humans.
Explanations offered
The finds show that early modern humans in Africa were using symbols long before the famous cave art of Europe. What the patterns meant is unknown. The cave also held a kit for making ochre paint, about 100,000 years old.
- When
- About 73,000 years old
- Where
- Blombos Cave, Western Cape, South Africa
- Witnesses
- The archaeologist Christopher Henshilwood's team
- Status
- Confirmed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.