TerravelSouth Africa · Africa
Blombos Cave
A South African cave where ochre-stained artifacts reveal the artistic minds of people 100,000 years ago.
Blombos Cave sits along the Southern Cape coast, 300 kilometers east of Cape Town, where the Indian Ocean meets ancient stone. Excavations since 1991 have uncovered Middle Stone Age deposits spanning 100,000 to 70,000 years ago, revealing how early humans understood color, pattern, and meaning.
The cave's layers tell two stories: the deeper chambers preserve evidence of our ancestors' creative impulses during the Middle Stone Age, while upper deposits show continuous habitation through the Late Stone Age until just 300 years ago. Ongoing fieldwork continues to unearth secrets from this threshold between prehistory and our modern world.
Blombos Cave has yielded some of the world's oldest known artistic engravings, with ochre-covered tools and decorated objects suggesting symbolic thought emerged far earlier than once believed.
Test yourself
Which Southern African cave has yielded ochre-decorated tools proving symbolic thought 100,000 years ago?
Blombos Cave, South Africa, is famous for its Middle Stone Age ochre-covered tools and artistic engravings dating to 100,000–70,000 years ago, making it one of the world's oldest sites of symbolic expression.
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