Primitive man used makeup, dined on cooked seafood

BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- A recent archaeological discovery in a South Africa cave suggests primitive Homo sapiens may have eaten seafood, used razor-sharp cutting tools and donned makeup long before they were supposed to.

Researchers found harvested and cooked seafood, reddish pigment from ground rocks and early tiny blade technology at Pinnacle Point overlooking the Indian Ocean near South Africa's Mossel Bay. Scientific optical dating techniques show these indicators of modern life were from 164,000 years ago, plus or minus 12,000 years.

A recent archaeological discovery in a South Africa cave suggests primitive Homo sapiens may have eaten seafood, used razor-sharp cutting tools and donned makeup long before they were supposed to.


Skeletal remains from the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History, a permanent exhibition hall that presents the remarkable history of human evolution from our earliest ancestors millions of years ago to modern Homo sapiens, are seen in New York,Feb. 7, 2007.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)


"Together as a package this looks like the archaeological record of a much later time period," said study author Curtis Marean, professor of anthropology at the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University.

Marean said the findings reveal humans were eating seafood about 40,000 years earlier than previously thought. They are also the earliest record of humans eating something other than what they caught or gathered on the land. Most of what Marean found were the remnants of brown mussels, but he also found black mussels, small saltwater clams, sea snails and even a barnacle that indicates whale blubber or skin was brought into the cave.

Marean also found 57 pieces of ground-up rock that would have been reddish- or pinkish-brown. That would be used for self-decoration and sending social signals to other people, much the way makeup is used now, he said.

There have been reports of earlier but sporadic pigment use in Africa. The same goes with rocks that were fashioned into small pointy tools.

But having all three together shows a grouping of people that is almost modern, Marean said. Seafood harvesting, unlike other hunter-gatherer activities, encourages people to stay put, and that leads to more social interactions, he said.


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