More pointed bone from Blombos Five more pieces of pointed bone have been found at Blombos Cave on the Southern Cape coast. The bone tools, found during excavations by the Southern Cape Archaeological Trust under the directorship of Dr Chris Hershilwood, are amongst the earliest fashioned bone tools in the world. Although stone tools have been in use for over two million years, fashioned pieces of bone like those found at Blombos, are a recent phenomenon. Their exact age still has to be confirmed, but they are believed to be in the region of 80 000 to 100 000 years old. Similar tools found in Europe are only 40 000 years old, suggesting that modern human cognitive development occurred first in Africa before spreading elsewhere in the world. The significance of Blombos was first noticed by Hershilwood in 1992 and continued excavations at the site since 1997 have been funded by the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation of the United States and other donors. During these field seasons the first pieces of pointed bone were found. Artefacts from Blombos have been ascribed to the Stillbay tool industry, one of the founding features of the Middle Stone Age in South Africa. The appearance of Stillbay type tools - characterized by beautiful leaf-shaped bifaces - coincide with the emergence of anatomically modern humans. Like Klasies River Mouth Cave near Plettenberg Bay, Blombos contains some of the earliest evidence of the sustained use of marine resources which may account for the increase in brain size that is evident in Homo sapiens sapiens. Assistant director of the excavation, Roydon Yeats, says the pointed bone pieces may have been used as needles to make leather clothes. Other significant finds from Blombos are nodules of ochre that may have had a cosmetic use, as well as fish bones which may be the first convincing evidence in the world of humans catching line fish. ©Copyright Prime Origins 2001 CONTACT BRETT HILTON-BARBER primeorigins.co.za is an iafrica.com Private Label site

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