Ancient Art Studio Found in Cave In Africa
The 100,000-year-old workshop is the earliest example of an art studio.
- The findings show how red pigment ochre was used.
- Two separate tool kits for working ochre were found at the site.
- The findings represents an important benchmark in the evolution of complex human mental processes.
A tiny cave on the South African coast has yielded the earliest evidence of an artist’s studio — a processing workshop where a liquefied ochre-rich mixture was produced 100,000 years ago.
Christopher Henshilwood from the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and colleagues found the ochre-rich mixture stored in two abalone shells at Blombos Cave on the southern Cape Coast, east of Cape Town, South Africa. (more…)