Post by L Roebuck on Sept 9, 2006 6:53:41 GMT -5
Cave colours pose a new tongue-twister
IAN JOHNSTON
SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
OUR early human ancestors may have been smarter than we have given them credit for.
Archaeologists have found evidence that language developed at least 100,000 years before the evolution of modern-day Homo sapiens, the supposedly wise version of human-like species.
According to findings in a cave complex at Twin Rivers in Zambia, Homo heidelbergensis, believed to be a common ancestor of both modern humans and Neanderthals, made and used a range of colours. These included red, yellow, brown, pink, black and a "sparkling" purple.
This is believed to be strong evidence that colours had symbolic meanings and, if they were dealing with such abstract concepts, language must also have been used to express them.
Colours are widely used in a symbolic way, for example to identify football teams and their fans. Dr Lawrence Barham, of Liverpool University, who has been working for ten years on the cave evidence, told the British Association Festival of Science in Norwich yesterday: "Mineral pigments have been found going back 300,000 years, and that predates the evolution of Homo sapiens.
"That's surprising. We tend to think of language and abstract concepts and associate them with ourselves."
Dr Barham said the pigments or ochres used by heidelbergensis also had functional uses.
"But the range of colours used and later links with other symbolic behaviours, such as beads, engraving and rock art, argue for a long tradition of non-functional uses," he said.
The festival was told that ochres appeared in African history at the same time as the first local traditions of stone tool-making emerged.
"Is this a coincidence, or a distant signal of the formation of typically human social bonds based on language and shared identity?" Dr Barham asked.
news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1331982006
IAN JOHNSTON
SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
OUR early human ancestors may have been smarter than we have given them credit for.
Archaeologists have found evidence that language developed at least 100,000 years before the evolution of modern-day Homo sapiens, the supposedly wise version of human-like species.
According to findings in a cave complex at Twin Rivers in Zambia, Homo heidelbergensis, believed to be a common ancestor of both modern humans and Neanderthals, made and used a range of colours. These included red, yellow, brown, pink, black and a "sparkling" purple.
This is believed to be strong evidence that colours had symbolic meanings and, if they were dealing with such abstract concepts, language must also have been used to express them.
Colours are widely used in a symbolic way, for example to identify football teams and their fans. Dr Lawrence Barham, of Liverpool University, who has been working for ten years on the cave evidence, told the British Association Festival of Science in Norwich yesterday: "Mineral pigments have been found going back 300,000 years, and that predates the evolution of Homo sapiens.
"That's surprising. We tend to think of language and abstract concepts and associate them with ourselves."
Dr Barham said the pigments or ochres used by heidelbergensis also had functional uses.
"But the range of colours used and later links with other symbolic behaviours, such as beads, engraving and rock art, argue for a long tradition of non-functional uses," he said.
The festival was told that ochres appeared in African history at the same time as the first local traditions of stone tool-making emerged.
"Is this a coincidence, or a distant signal of the formation of typically human social bonds based on language and shared identity?" Dr Barham asked.
news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1331982006