Scientists believe they have discovered the oldest known drawing... and it looks like a hashtag

Archaeologists say the the design is the oldest known human drawing
REUTERS
Sean Morrison @seanmorrison_13 September 2018

The oldest known drawing has been discovered on a small fragment of rock in South Africa, scientists have said.

It is about 73,000 years old and shows cross-hatch lines on stone made with red ochre pigment.

The small fragment, which some say vaguely looks like a hashtag, was found in Blombos Cave on the country’s southern coast.

The find is "a prime indicator of modern cognition" in our species, scientists who discovered the drawing said.

An "ochre crayon" was used to etch the drawing onto the stone.

Scientists discovered the drawing in a cave in South Africa
REUTERS

"The abrupt termination of all lines on the fragment edges indicates that the pattern originally extended over a larger surface," said archaeologist Christopher Henshilwood.

The pattern was probably more complex and structured in its entirety than in this truncated form."

He added: "We would be hesitant to call it art. It is definitely an abstract design and it almost certainly had some meaning to the maker and probably formed a part of the common symbolic system understood by other people in this group."

Other Blombos Cave artefacts of a similar age included ochre pieces engraved with abstract patterns resembling the one drawn on the stone as well as ochre-covered shell beads.

Blombos Cave artifacts dating from 100,000 years ago included a red ochre-based paint.

"All these findings demonstrate that early Homo sapiens in the southern Cape used different techniques to produce similar signs on different media," Henshilwood said.

"This observation supports the hypothesis that these signs were symbolic in nature and represented an inherent aspect of the advanced cognitive abilities these early African Homo sapiens, the ancestors of all of us today."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT