Prehistoryc. 60,000 years ago · Klipdrift Complex, De Hoop Nature Reserve, Western Cape, South Africa
60,000-year-old antelope protein found mixed with ochre in South Africa
Ancient proteins show the collagen came from the common eland, suggesting Stone Age people mixed antelope material with ochre, or perhaps used ochre-treated hides.
In brief 3 key points
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- Eland collagen found in ochre-rich sediments about 60,000 years old.
- Points to Stone Age people combining animal material with ochre.
- The study also suggests, more tentatively, that people used ochre-treated hides.
Scientists have found animal collagen mixed with ochre in sediments about 60,000 years old at the Klipdrift Complex, a Stone Age site in South Africa. The site lies in De Hoop Nature Reserve. The protein came from the common eland (Taurotragus oryx), a large antelope.
An international team did the work, according to a statement from Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan. The results are published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Archaeology Magazine, reporting the study, calls the mix of collagen and ochre rare.
The study suggests that people mixed materials taken from eland with ochre powder. It also raises a second, more tentative possibility. Perhaps people used hides treated with ochre at the site, which sits on a cliff.
Proteins identify the antelope
The researchers used palaeoproteomics, the study of ancient proteins. Proteins are chains of amino acids, and the exact sequence of a protein such as collagen differs slightly from species to species. Reading those sequences let the team identify the species behind the collagen.
Collagen is the main protein in skin, bone and connective tissue. Its presence in the ochre-rich layers shows that animal tissue ended up alongside the pigment. The common eland is one of the largest antelopes in Africa. The reports released so far do not say which part of the animal the collagen came from.
What ochre was used for
Ochre is an earth pigment coloured by iron oxides, ranging from yellow to deep red. It turns up often at Middle Stone Age sites in southern Africa. Archaeologists have long debated what early humans did with it.
Suggested uses include body paint, decoration, an ingredient in glues for fixing stone tools to handles, and the treatment of animal hides. The pigment itself usually survives, while the other materials it was mixed with rarely do. A protein trace from a named animal is direct evidence of one such material.
The Klipdrift result fits two of those ideas. If eland material was blended into ochre powder, people were making a mixture with an animal ingredient. If the collagen came from ochre-treated hides, people were using ochre on skins at the site. Both remain interpretations of the same chemical trace.
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Other sites on South Africa's southern Cape coast have shown that people processed ochre with care. At Blombos Cave, archaeologists found an ochre-processing workshop about 100,000 years old. There, people had ground ochre and combined it with bone and charcoal in abalone shells.
The Klipdrift study adds a different kind of evidence: a protein identified to species in ochre-rich sediment. The eland collagen came from sediment samples about 60,000 years old, taken at the cliffside site.
Sources (1)
Peer-reviewed paperfrom Kyushu University
- 60,000-Year-Old Animal Proteins Mixed With Ocher Identified in South Africa (Archaeology Magazine)
Edited by Guiseppe Weijermars
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