A rock found off the coast of South Africa may be the oldest human artwork representing another animal, according to a team of researchers who examined the stone.
The aeolian rock was found east of Steele Bay, about 205 miles (330 kilometers) from Cape Town. Based on its symmetry and grooves on its surface, researchers speculate that the rock may be an artificial blue stingray (D. chrysonota), native to the region.The team’s cautious conclusion is publish exist rock art research.
Study co-authors Charles Helm (paleontologist at Nelson Mandela University) and Alan Whitfield (honorary chief scientist at the South African Aquatic Biodiversity Research Institute) wrote exist dialogue Their conclusion is “a highly informed guess based on our knowledge of tens of thousands of these rocks.”
The team speculates that the stone may be an ammonia: a trace made from sand that later turned into stone. The stone is in the shape of a kite, with grooves on one side, and is nearly symmetrical. The base of the stone was chopped off, which the team speculates may mark where the “tail” on the stingray may have been ceremonially removed. The stone was found on a beach, further supporting the possibility that the sculpture was traced from a fresh specimen.
“Symmetries have always been fascinating and can have multiple origins, only one of which is human,” Helm and Whitfield write. “But it always needs an explanation, and so many levels of symmetry support the origin of ancient humans: in our view, the likelihood that the combination of multiple symmetrical features can be attributed to chance alone is remote.”
Researchers say dating the stone directly would be damaging to it, but optical-stimulated luminescence dating of nearby rocks suggests the apparent artwork was made about 130,000 years ago.
For reference, the oldest certifiable animal artwork— warthog drawing In a cave in Indonesia – dating back 43,900 years.this oldest depiction of hunting Although older animal artwork exists around the same time, it was most likely created by Neanderthals.this lion man sculptureA 40,000-year-old mammoth ivory statue found in Germany’s Horenstein-Stadl Cave is thought to be the oldest known depiction of the animal – albeit a mythical human-lion hybrid. The recent stingray sand sculpture presented by the team breaks the known date for humans to depict the animal in the water.
It is worth noting that Hand and footprints from 200,000 years ago The footprints were discovered in 2021 near a hot spring on the Tibetan Plateau, but as we reported at the time, they may not have been made by a smart man. However, a researcher not associated with the paper said that based on the “deliberate care” with which the prints were made, they could be defined as works of art.
The conclusion is untenable. To the untrained eye, the so-called stingray sand sculpture looks like an ordinary rock. But it might—just might—hold a coveted place in our species’ cultural history.
more: North America’s largest cave art discovered in Alabama