Blombos Cave — Middle Stone Age Ochre Workshop
Blombosfontein
Middle Stone Age (100–70 ka ochre horizon, Still Bay 75 ka)·Homo sapiens Middle Stone Age (Still Bay/Howiesons Poort)·🇿🇦 Western Cape, South Africa
About
About Blombos Cave — Middle Stone Age Ochre Workshop
Blombos Cave is the 34 m-apse calcarenite sea-cliff shelter 300 km E of Cape Town where Christopher Henshilwood found 100,000–70,000 BP ochre workshop and earliest abstract engravings. Levels M1–M3 yielded 8,000 ochre pieces, 2 engraved ochres with cross-hatch (77,000 BP), shell beads (Nassarius), 100 ka ochre toolkit with abalone containers, and earliest pressure-flaked Still Bay points (75 ka). Demonstrates early modern human symbolic cognition. Active 1991– excavation, Wits/UiB.
Why it mattersEarliest ochre engraving and composite toolkits demonstrating fully modern cognition 70 ka earlier than Europe.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Were cross-hatches art, notation or Doodle?
- 02Why abandon ochre cave at 70 ka peak
Theories
- 01Blombos ochre as social signaling for coastal MSA demography (Henshilwood)
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- Not built — sea cave in Pliocene calcarenite
- Period
- Middle Stone Age (100–70 ka ochre horizon, Still Bay 75 ka)
- Culture
- Homo sapiens Middle Stone Age (Still Bay/Howiesons Poort)
- Builders
- MSA modern humans
- Purpose
- Coastal ochre processing, bead manufacture and geometric engraving workshop
- Abandoned
- c.70 ka dune encroachment
- Rediscovered
- 1991 Henshilwood survey
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
100 ka
Earliest ochre processing level
77 ka
Engraved ochre cross-hatch
1991
Henshilwood excavation starts
On the ground
Structures & features
34.4144° S · 21.2225° E · 35 m · 3 mapped features
Still Bay Engraved Ochre Level (77 ka)
rock artM1 horizon with 2 cross-hatched ochres and 20+ incised slabs within hearth complex
34.4146° S · 21.2228° EOchre Toolkit Abalone Workshop (100 ka)
workshopAbalone shell containers with ochre, charcoal and fat compound, earliest chemistry recipe
34.4142° S · 21.2222° ENassarius Shell Bead Horizon
bead horizon68 pierced Nassarius kraussianus beads with ochre residue and use-wear, 75 ka
34.4148° S · 21.2226° E