Ochre find reveals ancient knowledge of chemistry
The oldest ochre processing toolkits and workshop ever found have been unearthed, indicating that as far back as 100,000 years ago, banians had an understanding of chemistry.
South Africa’s Blombos Cave lies within a limestone cliff on the southern Cape coast, 300 km east of Cape Town. Its known for its 75,000-year-old rich deposits of artefacts such as heads, bone tools and ochre engravings. Some engravings date as far back as 100,000 years.
Archaeologist Christophers. Hinshelwood from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and University of Bergen, Norway has been excavating at the site since 1992, and has reported the discovery of a mixture, rich in ochre, stored in two abalone shells. It dates back to the Middle Stone Age – 100,000 years ago. Ochre is a term used to describe a piece of earth or rock containing red or yellow oxides or hydroxides of iron. It can be used to make pigments, or paints, ranging from golden-yellow and light yellow-brown to a rich red. Its use spans the history of humans from those living more than *200,000* years ago, to modern indigenous communities.
Made from an array of materials, this mixture, which could have functioned as wall, object and skin decoration or skin protection (acting in a similar way to modern-day sunscreen), indicates the early developments that occurred in the people who originally used the site.
“(Judging from) the complexity of the material that has been collected from different parts of the landscape and brought to the site, they [the people] must have had an elementary knowledge of chemistry to be able to combine these materials to produce this form. It’s not a straightforward process,” said Hinshelwood.
Study the flow-chart completion task below. For Questions 1-6, decide what type of information you need to find.