Page 60 - Research & Innovation Report 2020
P. 60

SCIENCE




            middle to late Pleistocene era, approximately 158 000 to 70 000
            years ago.

            “We know people were doing ‘palaeoart’ engravings in this area,”   Astonishing finds by
            says De Vynck, “For example, at the world-renowned Blombos
            Cave, about 30km to the west of the triangles site, Professor   dozens of researchers
            Christopher  Henshilwood  has  made  a  series  of  finds  since  the
            1990s, including engraved ochre and drawings dated to 77 000 and   With  a  multi-  and  transdisciplinary  international
            73 000 years ago respectively, and other finds such as deliberately   collaboration  with  researchers  from  over  40
            perforated shells used to make necklaces, as well as bone awls and   universities in Africa, America and Europe, the
            a paint processing kit all made by hominins.”         ACCP team has made numerous astonishing
                                                                  finds from the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain, a submerged
                                                                                             2
            Possibly the oldest examples of cognitively modern human beings   landscape  spanning  85  000  km , lying off the
            are at Pinnacle Point Cave near Mossel Bay. Here Dr Curtis Marean,   southern Cape coastline. Humans roamed this
            honorary professor at Nelson  Mandela University and international   landscape, exposed when ice ages caused sea
            director of the ACCP, and his team have evidence that humans   levels to drop, from at least 164 000 years ago.
            started to forage from the sea 164 000 years ago.
                                                                  In May 2020 the journal Quaternary Science
                                                                  Reviews  published a  special edition  called  The
            Marean explains that the vast deposits of discarded shells in   Palaeo-Agulhas Plain: a lost world and extinct
            middens in the cave indicate that humans of that time had been   ecosystem.  It includes 23  papers from global
            harvesting shellfish in the intertidal zone, which is only viable for   contributors, many being ACCP authors and co-
            shellfish harvesting during a limited period around the spring tide.   authors.
            This evidence of early humans’ knowledge of the lunar cycles,
            combined with the nutritional benefits of shellfish for brain growth   “It is a beautiful example of research between
            and fertility may well indicate that  the revolution in humanity’s   the disciplines as it includes, amongst others,
            cognitive development started on the shores of southern Africa.  ethnobotany, ichnology (the study of tracks and
                                                                  traces), geology, human behavioural ecology,
            Helm, C. W., H. C. Cawthra, J. C. De Vynck, C. J. Helm, R. Rust  and  W. Stear,   palaeobotany, archaeology, ethnography, and
            2021. ‘Large geometric patterns from the Middle Stone Age in aeolianites on the
            Cape south coast, South Africa’, Rock Art Research 38 (1) pp 10–22.  experimental  archaeology,”  says  De  Vynck.  “It
                                                                  features research we have undertaken over the
                                                                  past ten years, which has had a profound impact.
                                                                  We are openly sharing what we know as it is an
                                                                  asset to the South African and world community.”









































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