Most Active Stories Thu October 13, 2011 In African Cave, An
Early Human Paint Shop Apparently one of the earliest human
instincts was to paint things, including bodies and cave walls.
That's the conclusion from scientists who have discovered
something remarkable in a South African cave — a tool kit for
making paint. It looks to be the oldest evidence of paint-
making. Over in southern Africa 100,000 years ago, Homo sapiens
was pretty new on the scene. A favorite hangout was a cave named
Blombos near the Southern ocean. Archaeologists like Christopher
Henshilwood have spent decades finding stuff there that our
ancestors left behind. Recently, Henshilwood uncovered two
abalone shells with ocher ground into the shell. "Above and
below each shell and to the side of each shell was a complete
kit that was used for producing a pigmented mixture," he says.
In addition to the shells were stone flakes, grinding stones and
bits of bone with reddish ocher on them. Ocher is a kind of iron
oxide dug from the ground that ea