OLDEST PETROGLYPHS SO FAR?

100,000-year-old engraved

ocher, Blombos Cave, South

Africa. sciencemag.org.

Public domain.

What might indeed be the oldest date for a petroglyph so far has been found on a block of ocher dated to approximately 100,000 years BP. This discovery came from Blombos Cave in South Africa. Other ocher blocks in Blombos have been given dates of 77,000 years of age. These discoveries consist of pieces of ocher that have engraved lines or cross-hatching on them and they have engendered considerable debate on the origins of symbols and their meaning.

77,000-year-old engraved

ocher, Blombos Cave, South

Africa. smithsonian.org.

Public domain.

All students of this question seem to share the assumption that the ocher was ground to make a pigment powder that can be mixed into paint for other use. What the current debate seems to be about is whether the designs on the ocher have any symbolic significance or whether they were perhaps only doodles.

100,000-year-old engraved

ocher, Blombos Cave, South

Africa. sciencemag.org.

Public domain.

"About 100,000 years ago, ancient humans started etching lines and hashtag patterns onto red rocks in a South African cave. Such handiwork has been cited as the first sign our species could make symbols—distinct marks that stand for some meaning—and thus evidence of a sophisticated mind. But a new study, reported here this week at Evolang, a biannual conference on the evolution of language, finds that these markings and others like them lack key characteristics of symbols. Instead, they may have been more for decoration or enjoyment." (Erard 2018)

Checkered gunstock,

www.cs.uwyo.edu,

Public domain.

While either of these explanations is equally good, and probably equally unprovable, they do not cover all of the possibilities. Were I tasked with grinding a quantity of powdered pigment from small pieces of ocher, I imagine that one of my concerns would involve having a secure grip. In many other applications that involve manipulating a small object that secure grip is achieved by modifying the surface with knurling or checkering. What if these patterns of lines incised into the surface of the ocher represent checkering and have no symbolic or decorative  significance at all? Or, to phrase that in another way, instead of having symbolic or decorative significance, perhaps they just represent an engineering solution to the problem of securely holding a small object. Now, I will admit that they look like decoration to me, but that does not mean that they are not also meant to assist with a secure grip. The checkering on the wooden stock of a rifle is meant to be decorative as well as help provide a secure grip. Possibly they represent the first example of knurling or checkering, the first known manifestation of engineering - not art, and that, in its own way, is just as exciting.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on this report you should read the original at the site listed below.

REFERENCES:

Erard, Michael

2018 Is This 100,000-Year-Old Hashtag the First Humanmade Symbol - or Just a Pretty Decoration?, April 20, 2018, http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/100000-year-old-hashtag-first-human-symbol-or-just-

pretty-decoration