The world's oldest drawing is similar to a modern symbol.
During excavations at Bombos Cave in South Africa, scientists discovered a piece of rock with red lines in the form of a hashtag. The drawing of the ancient artist is 30 thousand years older than other similar images, which were still considered the oldest created by Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens).
This drawing was discovered while working with artifacts found seven years ago during excavations at Bombos Cave, which is 300 km east of Cape Town on the southern coast of South Africa, 100 meters from the sea, reports Nature.
The drawing was made 73 thousand years ago. Three red stripes were applied to the stone by the hand of an unknown "artist", which intersect with six other lines - the image resembles a modern hashtag symbol.
Researchers are convinced of the non-random origin of the unusual drawing and consider it a fragment of a larger composition that has been lost over time. This is evidenced by the fact that the lines are abruptly cut off.
To prove the accuracy of the assumptions, experts conducted an experiment to reproduce the method of applying the image. Analysis of the samples showed that the lines were made with a pointed piece of ocher 1-3 millimeters thick.
It was also possible to establish that the ancient people used ocher not only for painting, but also, for example, as a means of sun protection or an additive to glue. According to scientists, the artifact found was probably part of the millstones, on which ocher was ground into powder.
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The sensational discovery was made by Ruka Pollar from the University of Johannesburg. He discovered a small stone by accident - when he was cleaning artifacts found in the cave back in 2011.
Scientists suggest that the cave in which the ancient drawing was found was periodically inhabited by people, as evidenced by the bones of animals, people, bone tools, shell beads found on the spot.
“We found many objects that could have been made by Homo sapiens, but we didn’t know that painting already existed at that time,” said another archaeologist Christopher Henschielwood from the University of Bergen.
For further analyzes, a stone chip with ocher samples was transferred to the University of Bordeaux. With the help of a microscope, laser and other technologies, they must make the final verdict: is the ancient "hashtag" the result of human work?
The purpose of the picture is still a mystery. Experts cannot yet say with certainty whether these were ordinary scribbles, or whether the image carried a deep meaning.
According to archaeologists, the drawings were left in a dungeon 73 thousand years ago - about a millennium after the appearance in Africa of a small population of Homo sapiens, Homo sapiens, which survived the most powerful volcanic eruption in Indonesia and the next few decades of winter.
Earlier, archaeologists and researchers of ancient artifacts were sure that people close to the modern type first began to draw much later, that is, about 42 thousand years ago. Rock carvings were found in caves near the city of Maros, located on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.