PALAEOANTHROPOLOGY

The coast in colour

Sally McBrearty and Chris Stringer

A South African cave overlooking the Indian Ocean was apparently a desirable residence for early
humans. The site has provided rich evidence for the early use of colour and marine resources.

On the basis of both fossil and genetic data,
we know that Homo sapiens had evolved in
Africa by 150,000–200,000 years ago. But the
time and manner of human behavioural evolu-
tion are less clear. Exploiting marine resources,
producing complex technology and manipu-
lating symbols are all symptomatic of modern
human activity. When did such behaviours
appear, and how did the process relate to the
morphological evolution of our species?

On page 905 of this issue, Marean et al.

1

provide strong evidence that early humans
displayed key elements of modern behaviour
as far back as 165,000 years ago at Pinnacle
Point on the coast of South Africa (Fig. 1). The
evidence is in the form of shellfish, haematite
(red ochre) used as a colouring agent, and
small stone ‘bladelets’. The site provides a rare

glimpse into human adaptation to coastal con-
ditions during a time for which most evidence
elsewhere has been scuttled by subsequent rises
in sea level.

The earliest unequivocal fossils of H. sapiens

are crania from Ethiopian sites at Omo Kibish
and Herto, respectively dated to about 195,000
and 160,000 years ago. Genetic estimates

2

for

the origin of our species also lie in the interval
100,000–200,000 years ago. But the behavioural
repertoire and precise geographical range of
these early human populations in Africa are
unevenly documented.

There are two distinct views about the rela-

tionship between anatomical and behavioural
evolution in early H. sapiens. Some work-
ers favour a late and rather sudden origin
for behavioural modernity, dating to around

45,000 years ago at the transition from the
Middle Stone Age to the Later Stone Age

3

. In

this view, behavioural change lagged consider-
ably behind anatomical change, and may have
resulted from a sudden neurological shift. A
competing interpretation is that beads, art
objects and other forms of technological and
behavioural complexity emerged gradually
over the course of the Middle Stone Age (some
285,000 to 45,000 years ago), tracking morpho-
logical evolution more closely

4

. In this view,

early H. sapiens were essentially neurologically
and cognitively identical to modern humans,
and new behaviours seen in the archaeological
record resulted from human innovation, some-
times in response to the pressures of popula-
tion growth or environmental change.

The ability to manipulate symbols is

Figure 1

|

A home at Pinnacle Point.

Marean and colleagues’ evidence

1

for modern behaviour in early humans, dating to 165,000 years ago, comes from

site PP13B, the cave with the walkway entering it. Many coastal archaeology sites elsewhere must have been swept clean by sea-level rises during
interglacials. The materials at Pinnacle Point were spared such a fate because of the site’s elevation.

C. W

. MAREAN

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Microliths

Twin Rivers

Twin Rivers

Blombos

Blombos

Taforalt

Skhul

Klasies

Klasies

Grotta dei
Moscerini

Howiesonspoort

Enkapune
Ya Muto

Enkapune
Ya Muto

Pinnacle Point

Pinnacle Point

Pinnacle Point

Kapthurin

Shellfishing

Ochre

Shell beads

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

Thousands of years ago

Mumba

con sidered an essential part of modern
human cognition and behaviour

5

, although

definite traces of symbols in the archaeological
record are difficult to recognize and are often
obscured by the ravages of time. All humans
today express their social status and group
identity through visual clues such as cloth-
ing, jewellery, cosmetics and hairstyle. Shell
beads, and haematite used as pigment, show
that this behaviour dates to 80,000 years ago
in coastal North and South Africa

6,7

,

and to

perhaps 110,000 years ago in western Asia

8

; and

there are even earlier records of microliths and
pigment use in Africa (Fig. 2).

Marean et al.

1

now describe 57 pieces of

haematite, many apparently ground for use as
a colouring agent, from cave PP13B at Pinna-
cle Point. Like haematite from the nearby site
of Blombos, South Africa

6

, some of the pieces

of haematite from Pinnacle Point are incised,
either as an aid to grinding, or perhaps as
decoration, or even as elements of a notational
system. The Pinnacle Point evidence is signifi-
cant because it suggests that early humans in
Africa inhabited a cognitive world enriched by
symbols before 160,000 years ago.

Might the haematite have been used instead

for some utilitarian purpose? Experimental
replication demonstrates that ochre has little
of its claimed utility as a hide preservative

9

.

Archaeological and ethnographic evidence
shows, however, that ground haematite was
added to adhesives used to attach stone arte-
facts to bone or wooden shafts, and experi-
mental replication demonstrates that ochre
improves the durability and workability of
the mastic

10

. But the consistent selection of

the most brilliant reds for use in the adhesive
medium by the inhabitants of Pinnacle Point,
and of other African sites dating to the Mid-
dle Stone Age

1,9

,

cannot be so easily explained.

Ochre seems to have been a material with both
symbolic and utilitarian functions. The colour
red is fundamental to colour classifications
in all known human societies

11

, and it seems

probable that the substance was indeed used
for body painting and to colour artefacts by
165,000 years ago.

The presence of stone bladelets at Pinnacle

Point may also be significant. Miniature stone
tools were important to African technology
after 40,000 years ago, when small geometric
implements were mounted, often in multiples,
as projectiles. These no doubt gave their wield-
ers an advantage over populations limited to
hand weapons. Microlithic technology is
known from South and East Africa at around
70,000 years ago, but the Pinnacle Point blade-
lets are nearly 100,000 years older. However,
they show no sign of shaping into geometric
tools, and the fact that they comprise the small
end of a continuous size distribution for blades
at the site indicates that they may not have been
deliberately designed

12

. Microwear and residue

analysis might reveal if and how the bladelets
were hafted and used.

At about 165,000 years old, the remains

of molluscs at Pinnacle Point are the earliest
securely dated evidence for the systematic
exploitation of shellfish as food. Marean et al.

1

suggest that shellfish may have been seen by
the Pinnacle Point people as a ‘famine food’, to
be consumed when more preferred items were
scarce during the challenging cold and dry con-
ditions that pertained in Africa between about
195,000 and 130,000 years ago. Neanderthals
are known to have cooked shellfish in caves in
Italy as early as 110,000 years ago

13

, and shell-

fish may well have been exploited routinely
by even earlier coastal populations. However,
many cave repositories around the world were
swept clean by the rise in sea level during the
last interglacial, which ended around 115,000
years ago, and others have been submerged by
the sea-level rise of the present interglacial.

Anthropogenic deposits fortunately escaped

this fate at Pinnacle Point owing to its eleva-
tion. By comparing dates obtained from ura-
nium-isotope and luminescence dating with
bathymetric records and reconstruction of
topography based on geographic-information-
system data, the authors show that the coastline
lay within reasonable foraging distance of the
site only at around 167,000 years ago, in good
agreement with the key dated phase of human
occupation. Better understanding of the ancient
topography may help in discovering other sites
in the vicinity of Pinnacle Point, and advances
in dating techniques may allow further
evidence from this critical interval to be
identified elsewhere on the continent, in both

coastal and inland settings. We should expect
surprises as the evidence for behavioural
complexity in early humans continues to
accumulate.

■

Sally McBrearty is in the Department of
Anthropology, University of Connecticut,
Storrs, Connecticut 06269-2176, USA.
Chris Stringer is in the Department of
Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum,
London SW7 5BD, UK.
e-mails: [e-mail];
[e-mail]

1. Marean, C. W. et al. Nature

449, 905–908 (2007).

2. Stringer, C. in The Prehistory of Africa (ed. Soodyall, H.)

10–20 (Ball, Johannesburg, 2006).

3. Klein, R. G. & Edgar, B. The Dawn of Human Culture

(Nevraumont, New York, 2002).

4. McBrearty, S. & Brooks, A. J. Hum. Evol.

39, 453–563

(2000).

5. Henshilwood, C. S. & Marean, C. W. Curr. Anthropol.

44,

641–642 (2003).

6. Henshilwood, C. S. in Rethinking the Human Revolution

(eds Mellars, P. & Boyle, K.) (MacDonald Institute,
Cambridge, in the press).

7. Bouzouggar,

A.

et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA

104,

9964–9969 (2007).

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M.

et al. Science

312, 1785–1788

(2006).

9. Watts,

I.

S. Afr. Archaeol. Bull.

57, 1–14 (2002).

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78,

661–675 (2004).

11. Kay, P., Berlin, B., Maffi, M. & Merrifield, W. in Color

Categories in Thought and Language (eds Hardin, C. &
Maffi, I.) 21–58 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997).

12. Ambrose, S. H. in Thinking Small: Global Perspectives on

Microlithization (eds Elston, R. G. & Kuhn, S. H.) 9–29
(Am. Anthropol. Assoc., Washington DC, 2002).

13. Stiner, M. C. Honor Among Thieves (Princeton Univ. Press,

1994).

Figure 2

|

Timeline of some notable archaeological evidence for modern behaviour in early Homo

sapiens.

For context, the earliest unequivocal fossils of H. sapiens come from two sites in Ethiopia,

and date to about 195,000 and 160,000 years ago. The behavioural evidence is in the form of the
production of microliths (very small stone flakes); the exploitation of shellfish as a food resource;
the use of ochre (haematite) as a pigment; and the creation of shell beads. The coastal site of
Pinnacle Point, South Africa, has yielded evidence for the first three of these activities, as described by
Marean et al.

1

. Site locations: Twin Rivers, Zambia; Howiesonspoort, South Africa; Mumba, Tanzania;

Enkapune Ya Muto, Kenya; Klasies, South Africa; Kapthurin, Kenya; Blombos, South Africa; Skhul,
Israel; and Taforalt, Morocco. Grotta dei Moscerini, in Italy, provides an early example of Neanderthal
exploitation of marine resources.

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