73,000-year-old 'Hashtag' Found in South Africa

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September 16, 2018

Scientists in South Africa have found what they say is the world's oldest drawing. The red ochre sketch is 73,000 years old.

Oldest known drawing

The house key-sized sketch is a group of cross-hatch lines that resemble the modern hashtag. Specifically, three slightly curved lines cross six parallel lines. The lines end suddenly on the 1.5-inch-long rock flake because it is a fragment that the scientists found covered in mud.

The tool used to make the lines, which study author Christopher Henshilwood said is the oldest abstract drawing, was a stick of ochre that resembled the modern crayon. The results of the study appear in the Sept. 12 issue of the journal Nature.

Blombos Cave

The sketch was found on a stone fragment in Blombos Cave, about 185 miles east of Cape Town. Scientists have found other significant artifacts at the site, including red ochre beads, spear points, hunting tools, and what has been labeled a 100,000-year-old paint-making kit. The cave has proved a good source of such artifacts because it was closed for a long period of time. The first excavation in the cave took place in 1991.

It was only earlier in 2018 that archaeologists uncovered what they then termed the world's oldest art, a 64,000-year-old set of cave paintings in Spain.

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Social Studies for Kids
copyright 2002–2018
David White

Social Studies for Kids
copyright 2002–2019
David White