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Diepkloof Rock Shelter is a rock shelter in Western Cape, South Africa in which has been found some of the earliest evidence of the human use of symbols, in the form of patterns engraved upon ostrich eggshell water containers. These date around 60,000 years ago.〔Texier PJ, Porraz G, Parkington J, Rigaud JP, Poggenpoel C, Miller C, Tribolo C, Cartwright C, Coudenneau A, Klein R, Steele T, Verna C. (2010). "A Howiesons Poort tradition of engraving ostrich eggshell containers dated to 60,000 years ago at Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa". ''Proceedings of the National Acadademy of Science'' U S A. 107: 6180–6185. PMID 20194764〕〔 The symbolic patterns consist of lines crossed at right angles or oblique angles by hatching. It has been suggested that "by the repetition of this motif, early humans were trying to communicate something. Perhaps they were trying to express the identity of the individual or the group."〔Amos, J. (2010). (Etched ostrich eggs illustrate human sophistication. ) BBC News 〕 ==Site description== The cave is about from the shoreline of the Atlantic in a semi-arid area, near Elands Bay about north of Cape Town.〔Tribolo, C. Mercier, N., Valladas, H. Joron J.L., Guibert P., Lefrais Y., Selo M., Texier P.-J., Rigaud J.-Ph., Porraz G., Poggenpoel C., Parkington J., Texier J.-P., Lenoble A.. (2009) "Thermoluminescence dating of a Stillbay–Howiesons Poort sequence at Diepkloof Rock Shelter (Western Cape, South Africa)". ''Journal of Archaeological Science'', 36: 730–739. 〕 It occurs in quartzitic sandstone in a butte that overlooks in an east direction above the Verlorenvlei River. It contains one of "most complete and continuous later Middle Stone Age sequences in southern Africa"〔 stretching from before 130,000 BP to about 45,000 BP and encompassing pre-Stillbay, Stillbay, Howiesons Poort, and post-Howiesons Poort periods. It is about wide and deep. Research is based upon finds discovered in a trench excavated within it that is across and in depth. The deposits consist of burnt and nonburnt organic residues and ash that came from hearths, ash dumps and burnt bedding.〔 It was first excavated in 1973 by John Parkington and Cedric Poggenpoel.〔Parkington, J., Poggenpoel, C. (1987). "Diepkloof Rock Shelter". In: Parkington, J., Hall, M. (Eds.), ''Papers in Prehistory of the Western Cape, South Africa'', vol. 332. BAR International, pp. 269–293. ISBN 978-0-86054-425-8〕 Since 1999 it has been researched in a collaboration between the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town and the Institute of Prehistory and Quaternary Geology at the University of Bordeaux.〔 At Diepkloof Rock Shelter (DRS), from 70-74 ka bifaces and bifacial points are present while less complex forms such as backed artifacts occur from 70 ka through 60 ka and are subsequently replaced with unifacial points. Quartz and quartzite predominate the earliest unit with few occurrences of silcrete. During 70-74 ka unit, silcrete has replaced quartz while quartzite is still fairly dominant. From 65-70 ka quartz becomes dominant again with quartzite also being present. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Diepkloof Rock Shelter」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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