"Oldest drawing" found on a tiny rock in South Africa

Scientists claim to have discovered the oldest drawing of humanity on a small piece of rock in South Africa.

The drawing is about 73,000 years old and shows cross hatches drawn on stone with a red ocher pigment.

Scientists have discovered the small fragment of the drawing – some say a bit like a hashtag – in the Blombos cave on the south coast.

The report states that the discovery is "a major indicator of modern cognition" in our species.

While scientists have found older engravings in the world, research published Wednesday in the journal Nature indicate that the lines of this stone mark the first abstract drawing.

The article says that the former artist was using an "ocher pencil" to engrave it on stone.

Humanity has been using ocher, a clay earth pigment, for at least 285,000 years.

The drawing was "probably more complex" in its entirety, told Reuters the archaeologist Christopher Henshilwood.

"The abrupt termination of all the lines on the edges of the fragments indicates that the pattern initially spread over a larger area," he said.

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Dr. Henshilwood works at the University of Bergen (Norway) and at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) and has conducted research on drawing.

He told Reuters that while the team "hesitated to call it art", it almost certainly made sense for the manufacturer.

Many other artifacts were discovered in the Blombos Cave, 300 kilometers east of Cape Town, including red ocher-covered pearls, engraved ocher fragments, and a paint kit dating back some 100,000 years. .

The modern man, known as homo sapiens, first appeared more than 315,000 years ago in what is now Africa.