Science: The Earliest Known Example of ‘Modern Cognition

What? This doesn’t look like much of anything

Nature, probably the world’s top science journal, has published a paper believed to reveal evidence of the earliest known human abstract drawing. The drawing dates to the Middle Stone Age, about 73,000 years ago. One researcher commented that this find is interpreted as “a prime indicator of modern cognition.” The rock fragment has cross-hatch lines sketched onto stone with red ochre pigment.

The paper’s abstract commented: “This notable discovery pre-dates the earliest previously known abstract and figurative drawings by at least 30,000 years. This drawing demonstrates the ability of early Homo sapiens in southern Africa to produce graphic designs on various media using different techniques.” Although scientists have found older drawings, this research indicates the lines on this stone mark the first abstract drawing, an indicator of abstract thinking.

Extrapolation of the lines on the rock fragment is interpreted to be an abstract drawing. The fragment was analyzed to be coarse-grained silcrete (length 38.6 mm, width 12.8 mm, height 15.4 mm). One inch equals 25.4 mm, so the fragment is small. According to one researcher, “the abrupt termination of all lines on the fragment edges indicates that the pattern originally extended over a larger surface.” Sometimes, that is how tenuous human knowledge or belief can be.

B&B orig: 9/12/18