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Stone Age Code Red: Scarlet Symbols Emerge In Israeli Cave
Science News ^ | 11-8-2003 | Bruce Bower

Posted on 11/08/2003 9:33:41 AM PST by blam

Stone Age Code Red: Scarlet symbols emerge in Israeli cave

Bruce Bower

The Qafzeh Cave in Israel contains skeletal remains of modern Homo sapiens that are more than 90,000 years old, as well as more-recent signs of human occupation. Investigators now say that red ocher found in Qafzeh Cave's oldest sections supports the controversial theory that symbolic thinking, a hallmark of modern-day human thought, arose deep in the Stone Age.

HUE CLUE. An ancient lump of red ocher excavated at Qafzeh Cave contains evidence of scraping by stone implements. G. Laron, Inst. of Archaeology/Hebrew Univ.

Archaeologists traditionally have held that the assigning of separate meanings to certain items or colors emerged no more than 50,000 years ago, with the appearance of Upper Paleolithic cultures.

In the Middle East and Eurasia, however, "many symbolic behaviors that are considered modern existed for a time [before the Upper Paleolithic] and then disappeared, to be reinvented time and again," contends Erella Hovers of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who directed the Qafzeh project.

Her argument hinges on the discovery of 71 pieces of red ocher, a form of iron oxide typically used as a pigment, as well as ocher-stained stone tools, near several of Qafzeh's oldest H. sapiens graves. The same sediment holds the remains of large hearths and, intriguingly, scattered shells of inedible mollusks Preliminary chemical analyses indicate that the ocher had been heated.

In the August-October Current Anthropology, Hovers and her coworkers propose that, more than 90,000 years ago, lumps of ocher from nearby sources were brought to the cave, carefully heated in hearths to yield specific hues of red, and used with the shells in possibly symbolic activities related to burying the dead.

Evidence of similar ocher use near human graves doesn't appear again at Qafzeh Cave until 12,700 years ago, the scientists say.

The precise meanings of the ocher-based practices remain unknown, Hovers notes. Many nonindustrial societies today regard the color red as symbolic of fertility or vitality.

Prehistoric artwork and other symbolic expressions commonly occurred in large populations that stayed for extended periods at resource-rich locations, Hovers says. In the small, nomadic groups typical of Stone Age Middle East, a capacity for symbolic behavior would have surfaced only for special activities at designated sites, such as the interment of the dead at Qafzeh Cave, she argues.

Several commentaries appear with the new report and offer mixed reactions to Hovers' analysis of the Qafzeh artifacts.

According to Sally McBrearty of the University of Connecticut in Storrs, for example, ocher processing at Qafzeh adds to evidence of "the very great antiquity of the color red as a symbolic category." Engraved ocher dates to 77,000 years ago in South Africa (SN: 1/19/02, p. 40: Available to subscribers at http://www.sciencenews.org/20020119/note10.asp), she notes.

However, Richard G. Klein of Stanford University argues that ocher use represented merely a step toward advanced symbolic culture, which he says H. sapiens established around 50,000 years ago


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: age; cave; caveart; cavedrawings; cavepainting; cavepaintings; code; godsgravesglyphs; israeli; macroetymology; paleosigns; red; stone
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1 posted on 11/08/2003 9:33:41 AM PST by blam
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To: farmfriend
Ping.
2 posted on 11/08/2003 9:34:13 AM PST by blam
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To: blam
If I recall correctly, red ochre was commonly used on masks of the dead in South American cultures as well.
3 posted on 11/08/2003 9:38:09 AM PST by marsh2
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To: blam; *Gods, Graves, Glyphs; Alas Babylon!; annyokie; bd476; BiffWondercat; Bilbo Baggins; billl; ..
Gods, Graves, Glyphs
List for articles regarding early civilizations , life of all forms, - dinosaurs - etc.

Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this ping list.

For real time political chat - Radio Free Republic chat room

4 posted on 11/08/2003 9:41:16 AM PST by farmfriend ( Isaiah 55:10,11)
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To: blam
Investigators now say that red ocher found in Qafzeh Cave's oldest sections supports the controversial theory that symbolic thinking, a hallmark of modern-day human thought, arose deep in the Stone Age.

In fact, we never would have gotten to the Stone Age without it.

5 posted on 11/08/2003 9:58:35 AM PST by Agnes Heep
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To: blam
"90,000"

Considering that humans are the best propigators, manipulators and adapters in the world, you could project that if humans were writing 90,000 years ago, the world population would be 900,000,000,000 not 6,000,000,000. America would have been linked 85,000,000 years ago and we would be living in paved technological splendor!

"And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do."

6 posted on 11/08/2003 10:06:01 AM PST by Theophilus (Save little liberals - Stop Abortion!!!)
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To: blam
Qafzeh is mentioned here as the first site outside of Africa for robust but anatomically modern humans. I used to have a good web page bookmarked with pictures of some of the Qafzeh fossils but it seems to be gone.
7 posted on 11/08/2003 10:19:16 AM PST by VadeRetro
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To: Theophilus
You forget the effects of the Toba explosion 75,000 years ago. That reduced the human population to a handful.
8 posted on 11/08/2003 10:24:24 AM PST by Eternal_Bear
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To: Eternal_Bear
In Australia, the Bradshaw-period red ochre rock drawings I've seen date back to 40,000 BC. They are elongated paintings of humans, animals and symbols. The techniques they used permieated the ink inches deep in the rock, and are still unknown.
9 posted on 11/08/2003 11:07:29 AM PST by Buckworthy (we must cultivate our own garden....Voltaire)
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To: blam
OH-OH !!

Red Clay People Alert !!

Does this mean the First Americans (the ones who followed similar funerary practices all up and down the east coast of North and South America) were Jewish ? Palestinian ?
10 posted on 11/08/2003 11:12:50 AM PST by genefromjersey (So little time - so many FLAMES to light !!)
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To: Buckworthy
In Australia, the Bradshaw-period red ochre rock drawings I've seen date back to 40,000 BC. They are elongated paintings of humans, animals and symbols. The techniques they used permieated the ink inches deep in the rock, and are still unknown.

The Bradshaw-period also produced 4 Super Bowls. Truly a historic time.

11 posted on 11/08/2003 11:18:46 AM PST by montag813 (Fire Tenet...Jail Joseph Wilson...Rally 'Round Our President, Dammit!!!)
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To: genefromjersey
{Does this mean the First Americans (the ones who followed similar funerary practices all up and down the east coast of North and South America) were Jewish ? Palestinian ?} Maybe. Could be results of early school-busing.
12 posted on 11/08/2003 11:19:48 AM PST by Jumpmaster
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To: genefromjersey
Does this mean the First Americans (the ones who followed similar funerary practices all up and down the east coast of North and South America) were Jewish ? Palestinian ?

There is no such thing as a "Palestinian". Remember well that Arafat was born in Cairo, and his last two PM-designees were born in Syria and Jordan--all well before the "creation" of Israel in 1948.

13 posted on 11/08/2003 11:20:28 AM PST by montag813 (Fire Tenet...Jail Joseph Wilson...Rally 'Round Our President, Dammit!!!)
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To: blam
90,000 years

Sorry, but this can not be true. I read someplace on FR that the earth and universe were only 6000 years old.

14 posted on 11/08/2003 11:33:09 AM PST by Jeff Gordon (Why can't we all just get along and do things my way?)
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To: VadeRetro
"Qafzeh is mentioned here as the first site outside of Africa for robust but anatomically modern humans. "

Thanks. I like that. I may post it later as a 'stand-alone' article.

15 posted on 11/08/2003 11:47:58 AM PST by blam
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To: montag813
If there's "no such thing as Palestinian",who on earth were those folks occupying the turf during the British mandate ?
You know : the ones who were so opposed to Jewish refugees coming in from Europe prior to the UN recognition of an Israeli state ? The ones who had a Grand Mufti who advocated resumption of the Holocaust ???
16 posted on 11/08/2003 12:12:43 PM PST by genefromjersey (So little time - so many FLAMES to light !!)
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To: farmfriend; 4ConservativeJustices
bump for our 90,000 year old missing links, who liked lipsticks as well...
17 posted on 11/08/2003 12:40:53 PM PST by Ff--150 (Now unto Him Who is able to do)
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To: blam
Don't know what was wrong earlier. Here's one good site.

Another one.

A Dr. Ben Waggoner Slide Show on "The Fossil History of Us." (Just found this one.)

18 posted on 11/08/2003 12:47:58 PM PST by VadeRetro
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Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

To: Ff--150
bump for our 90,000 year old missing links, who liked lipsticks as well...

But did they pierce their tongues?

20 posted on 11/10/2003 1:40:24 PM PST by 4CJ (Come along chihuahua, I want to hear you say yo quiero taco bell. - Nolu Chan, 28 Jul 2003)
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