The World's Oldest Art

When Stone Age rock paintings were first discovered in Europe in 1879 scholars were unwilling to believe they were the work of 'primitive man'. Further discoveries eventually swayed opinion. Rock paintings discovered in the French cave of Chauvet in 1994 date the dawn of European Palaeolithic art to over 30 000 years old. But art may have been born in Africa, where our genus (Homo) and our species (Homo sapiens) evolved.

Art, evolution and symbols

Modern humans (Homo sapiens), who not only looked but also thought like us, emerged in Africa about 100 000 years ago. Prehistoric African art and artefacts may provide evidence for the evolution of modern human thinking and behaviour.

A hallmark of human-ness is abstract or 'symbolic' thought: the ability to understand that something can represent or 'stand for' something else. In art, marks and forms may 'stand for' things or concepts. Ancient art may shed light on the development of complex human thought.

New Finds

Excavations at Blombos Cave in South Africa made headlines in 2000. Archaeologists uncovered >70 000 year old chunks of pigment (red 'ochre'), incised with fine lines. The excavators argued that they might be the world's oldest 'art'.

In 2008, archaeologists described a similar piece of incised ochre, 50-80 000 years old, from another South African cave. The researchers concluded that it was difficult to interpret the piece as evidence of symbolic thought. The marks may have been made by scratching the pigment chunk to test its colour, for example. If so, the marks might have been made by design ("in order to give physical manifestation to a mental concept", in the words of the researchers, McKay and Welz). Whether the design had a symbolic meaning is hard to determine.

Dates and Debates

Older finds hailed as the oldest art have been hotly debated. The Tan Tan figurine, from Morocco, is about 400 000 years old. The Bherekat Ram figurine, from Israel, is at least 250 000 years old. Both are pebbles, shaped by natural processes, that look like sculpted human figures. Analysis suggested that prehistoric people may have modified them to enhance the resemblance. If so, pre-modern humans could think with symbols, and much deeper in the past.

Some archaeologists think these 'figurines' are simply natural objects. This may be so, but the cognitive skills to make art may have evolved around this time period. In 2000, researchers McBrearty and Brooks reviewed the archaeological evidence in the Journal of Human Evolution. They suggested that modern human behaviour, including the capacity to think with symbols and make art, followed on from innovations in technology that emerged in Africa 250-300 000 years ago.

Scientists and art historians are reconsidering the older idea that art began in Europe after a sudden 'revolution' in human consciousness 40-50 000 years ago. Africa may be the key to who we are today.

Sources

R. Bednarik. 2002.The Oldest Evidence of Palaeoart. Rock Art Research 20(2): 89-135.
S. McBrearty & A, Brooks. 2000. The Revolution That Wasn't. Journal of Human Evolution 2000) 39, pgs. 453-563
A. McKay & A. Welz. 2008. Engraved Ochre from a Middle Stone Age Context at Klein Kliphuis in the Western Cape of South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 35, pgs. 1521-32.
Henshilwood, C., F. D'Errico, R. Yates, Z. Jacobs, C. Tribolo, G. Duller, N. Mercier, J. Sealy, H. Valladas, I.Watts and A. Wintle. 2002. Emergence of Modern Human Behavior: Middle Stone Age Engravings from South Africa. Science 29, pgs. 1278:80.