One example of the rock art in the Wits University collection, which is probably the largest in the world (Image: Origins Centre)

From the City of Johannesburg comes this exciting news for archaeology and anthropology fans like me: Origins Centre traces history of mankind, written by Ndaba Dlamini.

My summary: On March 7th, 2006 President Thabo Mbeki officially opened the University of the Witwatersrand’s Origins Centre, the world’s only museum dedicated to exploring and celebrating the history of modern humankind. The first phase of the museum showcases the origins of humankind as well as an extensive collection of rock art from the Wits Art Research Institute. Many of the diverse exhibits bring to life the heritage of the San, whose DNA contains the earliest genetic print, linking this hunter-gatherer to the Homo sapiens who lived 160,000 years ago. For the first time in South Africa, archaeology had been brought to people to appreciate and no longer would people regard rock art as “crude”, Mbeki said.

Very unique is that the Origins Centre is inviting South Africans and international tourists to have their DNA tested to determine their ancestry – and have the results exhibited alongside those of Nelson Mandela. Read more about it in Are you related to Mandela? Fascinating!

If I was traveling to South Africa, the Origins Centre would be on top of the list of places to visit. Their website appears to be still under development, but there is more at South Africa Info including great links including the fabulous Rock Art Gallery.

More related links and images:
Rock Art Research Institute
Bradshaw Foundation
my earlier page on South African rock art
Met Museum

This is my monogram in cuneiform the way an ancient Babylonian might have written it. See what yours looks like at Write Like a Babylonian. With my interest in petroglyphs and pictograms, I was fascinated to learn that “Pictograms, or drawings representing actual things, were the basis for cuneiform writing”. Cuneiform was written on clay tablets, and then baked hard in a kiln; here’s how to make your own, a fun project with the young ones in your life. Interesting historical stuff here too.

One can view many excellent images along with translations of the cuneiform collection of the Science Museum of Minnesota.

UPDATE: Blogisisko (in Finnish) has picked up this story, with another interesting link to a Finnish-Sumerian dictionary. Apparently in the ongoing research to find origins of Finnish language, some possible connections have been found to Sumerian.

I occasionally visit and explore PrimitiiviNet*, an interesting website about archaeology and anthropology news, articles, books, and links to other related sites. It is written in a slightly disconcerting (to non-Finns) mix of English and Finnish by a Finn, Pekka Vaartela. What is unusual about the author, to me, is his personal interest in ancient spear throwers called Atlatl in Aztec or Woomera in Australia, having been introduced to it by an article “Atlatl – The Stone Age Kalashnikov” in New Scientist*. Have a look at this photo of Vaartela* practising spear throwing in this Finnish article. There’s even a World Atlatl Association of members who study the weapon’s mechanics, replicate them and practise using them.

*expired links have been removed

Have a chuckle over the image below, from his site (creator unknown).

“Who were our ancestors? From where did we originate? If we came out of Africa, what factors governed our routes? And when? Now finally this interactive map reveals an exciting journey of opportunity and survival, confirmed by genetic science and documented by ancient rock art.”

The Bradshaw Foundation, in association with Stephen Oppenheimer, presents a virtual global journey of man over the last 160,000 years as the world was peopled.

Great stuff – lots to study and come back to often! I’ve mentioned the excellent Bradshaw site a few times in the past, regarding the rock art of South Africa and Australia, and concerning endangered art.

Wandering through some old book-marked articles, I came across a very interesting old one (2003) that seems very timely so soon after my Creswell Crags post.

In Taking shape: Prehistoric art and us Victoria James discusses what prehistoric art and artifacts can tell us about the emergence of modern human behavior, centred on a book by Randall White, “Prehistoric Art: the Symbolic Journey of Humankind”. There has been great controversy over when exactly early hominids were considered to be “human” in the modern sense, in their skills and behaviour.

As I understand it, some experts believed very early patterned and non-representational “art” did not qualify as the work of a modern human. I’ve always felt strongly that anything that was made by the hands of early humans showed they were indeed human, not animal, as well as displaying “modern” skills.

James writes,”Indeed, some of the most powerful evidence for human cognitive sophistication found in White’s book lies not in the “artistic” quality of such objects as cave wall paintings, figurines or items of personal adornment, but in what such works reveal about the technological skill and complex organization of the societies that made them.”

And, “A guesstimate that we have considered is that this process may have been completed as much as some 300,000 years ago. That may be the depth of the modern mind.”

Related posts:
becoming human
what makes us human?
the spell of rock art