Los autores del trabajo han recuperado 270 fragmentos de cáscara, pertenecientes a un mínimo de 25 huevos diferentes que presentan diferentes patrones de grabado. Estos huevos presentan además perforaciones que sugieren que eran utilizados como recipientes para líquidos, usualmente agua. Así, los autores proponen que los diferentes motivos eran utilizados para expresar pertenencia o contenido de los recipientes. El uso persistente de los diferentes patrones a lo largo del tiempo, con el abandono de algunos de ellos en los últimos estratos registrados, así como las evidencias que apuntan a que la secuencia de grabado de los motivos era siempre la misma apuntan a la existencia de una tradición gráfica dentro de un grupo cultural, siendo este el registro más antiguo de este tipo de comportamiento, generalmente asociado a los humanos modernos.
Os dejamos
el abstract:
Ongoing
debates about the emergence of modern human behavior, however defined,
regularly incorporate observations from the later part of the southern
African
Middle Stone Age and emphasize the early appearance of artifacts thought
to
reflect symbolic practice. Here we report a large sample of 270
fragments of
intentionally marked ostrich eggshell from the Howiesons Poort at
Diepkloof
Rock Shelter, Western Cape, South Africa. Dating from ≈60,000 years ago,
these
pieces attest to an engraving tradition that is the earliest reliable
evidence
of what is a widespread modern practice. These abstract linear
depictions were
made on functional items (eggshell containers), which were curated and
involved
in daily hunter-gatherer life. The standardized production of repetitive
patterns, including a hatched band motif, suggests a system of symbolic
representation in which collective identities and individual expressions
are
clearly communicated, suggesting social, cultural, and cognitive
underpinnings
that overlap with those of modern people.
La referencia completa del artículo es:
Texier PJ,
Porraz G, Parkington J, Rigaud JP, Poggenpoel C, Miller C, Tribolo C,
Cartwright C, Coudenneau A, Klein R, Steele T & Verna C. 2010. A
Howiesons
Poort tradition of engraving ostrich eggshell containers dated to 60,000
years
ago at Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa. Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences, 107 (14), 6180–6185.
LUGAR Sudáfrica
