Based on the archaeological evidence recovered from Blombos cave, the red ochre was mined from a site several kilometers away and brought to the cave. Most of the stone and animal bone would have been recovered locally, although some silcrete flakes are within the mix: the closest source for that is also several kilometers from Blombos. Abalone shells would have been harvested from the intratidal zone of the beach a few hundred meters from the cave entrance: it is possible that the respiratory holes on the shell were plugged to prevent the ochre material from falling out.
The raw ochre was processed by rubbing it on a quartzite slab to create a powder, and by flaking to create somewhat larger chips. The chips were crushed with the quartzite grinder. Medium-sized seal, canid and bovid bones were heat-treated and crushed to make a kind of organic goo, and that was placed in the abalone shell. The mixture was stirred with one of the bones, and charcoal and water or some other liquid was added to the mix.
The resulting ochre pigment might have been used as paint to decorate a surface, object or person: while cave paintings are not known from Howiesons Poort/Still Bay occupations, ochre-painted objects have been identified within several sites of the Middle Stone Age along the South African coast.
Sources
- Blombos Cave
- Ochre
- Guide to the Middle Stone Age
- Howiesons Poort and Still Bay
- Early Modern Behavior
- Blombos Cave Official Site
Henshilwood C, D'Errico F, Van Niekerk K, Coquinot Y, Jacobs Z, Lauritzen S-E, Menu M, and Garcia-Moreno R. 2011. A 100,000-Year-Old Ochre-Processing Workshop at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Science 334:219-222.
Wadley L. 2010. Cemented ash as a receptacle or work surface for ochre powder production at Sibudu, South Africa, 58,000 years ago. Journal of Archaeological Science 37(10):2397-2406.
