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Art as Metaphor: The Prehistoric Rock-art of Britain

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<< Our Photo Pages >> Diepkloof - Rock Outcrop in South Africa

Submitted by bat400 on Friday, 05 March 2010  Page Views: 7179

Natural PlacesSite Name: Diepkloof
Country: South Africa Type: Rock Outcrop
Nearest Town: Capetown, South Africa  Nearest Village: Elands Bay
Latitude: 32.38685S  Longitude: 18.453055E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4
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Diepkloof
Diepkloof submitted by bat400 : General view of Diepkloof Rock Shelter site, South Africa Vue générale du site de Diepkloof, Afrique du Sud Date: 21 November 2009(2009-11-21) Phototgrapher: Vincent Mourre / Inrap. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Site in South Africa (Vote or comment on this photo)
Rock Outcrop in South Africa.
Two large rock shelters on the west bank of the Verlorenvlei River. Excavations have found hearths, tool fragments, decorated eggshell, and plant and animal remains dating to 55,000 to 65,000 years ago.

Note: Engraved Ostrich Eggs Suggest Early Early Man's Symbolic Thought. See comment.
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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 171.5km S 181° Iziko South African Museum Museum
 341.6km SE 132° Blombos Cave* Cave or Rock Shelter
 393.9km ESE 122° Pinnacle Point* Cave or Rock Shelter
 413.5km NNW 341° Spitzkloof* Cave or Rock Shelter
 535.6km NNW 346° Apollo 11 Cave* Cave or Rock Shelter
 583.9km ESE 111° Klasies River Caves* Cave or Rock Shelter
 637.1km N 10° The Lost City of Kalahari* Ancient Village or Settlement
 650.2km ENE 61° Thomas' Farm Belmont Rock Art Rock Art
 672.9km ENE 57° Driekopseiland Rock Art Rock Art
 683.5km NE 42° Kathu Pan* Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
 703.9km NE 45° Wonderwerk Cave* Cave or Rock Shelter
 723.3km ENE 57° Wildebeestkuil* Rock Art
 724.5km NE 56° Nooitgedacht Rock art Rock Art
 728.1km ENE 58° McGregor Museum Museum
 817.2km NE 54° Stowlands Rock art Rock Art
 926.6km NE 53° Wolmaransstad Rock Art Rock Art
 973.4km ENE 76° Lesob 1 Rock Art
 974.0km ENE 76° Lesob 2 Rock Art
 974.1km ENE 76° Lesob 3 Rock Art
 974.5km ENE 75° Lesob 5 Rock Art
 974.5km ENE 76° Lesob 4 Rock Art
 1038.8km NNW 342° Mirabib* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
 1051.2km NNW 347° Rooisand Rock Painting* Rock Art
 1093.2km ENE 77° Ikanti Shelter I Rock Art
 1119.8km ENE 76° Kamberg rock art Rock Art
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Homo Brittanicus: The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain

Homo Brittanicus: The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain

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"Diepkloof" | Login/Create an Account | 1 comment
  
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60,000 year old engravings on eggshells. by bat400 on Friday, 05 March 2010
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What do Homo sapiens have that our hominid ancestors did not? Many researchers think that the capacity for symbolic behaviors—such as art and language—is the hallmark of our species. A team working in South Africa has now discovered what it thinks is some of the best early evidence for such symbolism: a cache of ostrich eggshells dated to about 60,000 years ago and etched with intricate geometric patterns.

This fits with other recent suggestions of symbolism from South Africa. For example, last year researchers reported pieces of ochre etched with what may be abstract designs and dated to 100,000 years ago at BlombosCave on the Southern Cape; similar etchings dated to about 77,000 years ago were previously reported from Blombos. The Blombos team argued that this represented a continuous, long-standing symbolic tradition, but some archaeologists question whether such etchings qualify as true symbolic behavior.

Since 1999, a team led by prehistorian Pierre-Jean Texier of the University of Bordeaux in France has been working at the Diepkloof rock shelter. This shelter contains evidence of several cultures that used stone tools typical of modern humans. Over the past few years, the team has uncovered fragments from an estimated 25 ostrich eggs in 18 archaeological layers dated by two separate techniques to between 55,000 and 65,000 years ago. The fragments are etched with several kinds of motifs - parallel lines with cross-hatches and repetitive non-parallel lines.

The team also found a few eggshell fragments that appeared to have been pierced with a tool to make a hole in the top part of the egg. The researchers suggest that the large eggs, which had a volume of about 1 liter, might have been used as water containers, as hunter-gatherers in South Africa’s Kalahari Desert have used ostrich eggshells during historical times. The team concludes that the discovery “represents the earliest evidence of the existence of a graphic tradition among prehistoric hunter-gatherer populations.”

But is this really symbolism? Yes, says Stanley Ambrose, an archaeologist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. “It is an important new addition to the corpus of evidence for the development of modern human symbolic and artistic expression in Africa.”

Others aren’t so sure. The engravings could have been done for aesthetic purposes unrelated to symbolism, says Thomas Wynn, an archaeologist at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Researchers need to demonstrate that such engravings “require symbolic thinking,” rather than simply assuming that all such etchings are symbolic, says Wynn.

For more, see Science Now.
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