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It is difficult to overestimate the role of ocher in the development of human civilization. The first evidence of its use dates back to 500 thousand years ago, that is, long before the appearance of modern man. And the first evidence of its extraction on an "industrial" scale appeared about 48 years ago.
This follows from the statement of the team of the University of Missouri (USA). Their research was published in the journal Nature Communications..
The team visited Lion's Cave on the territory of the Eswatini state (formerly Swaziland) and analyzed its rocks using the method of optically stimulated luminescence. Thanks to this, they realized that people came there to extract a large amount of ocher as early as 48 thousand years ago.
This method comes down to the ability of some minerals to accumulate energy from radiation from the environment. This energy is "locked" inside and stays there while they are in the dark. If you shine a light on them (usually with a blue or green laser), this energy is released, which allows scientists to measure its strength and understand how long it has been since light rays touched the minerals.
During the study, scientists realized that people had been returning to this place regularly for several millennia, and with the help of other methods, they were able to trace where this ocher was then taken. And as it turned out, raw materials from the Lion's Cave were transported at a distance of up to a hundred kilometers.
It is worth noting that the Lion's Cave was discovered in the 1960s, but due to the lack of accurate dating methods, it was difficult for scientists to estimate its age. However, they understood that this place is very ancient and assumed that it is about 40 thousand years old. A new study more accurately established the age of the cave and determined that it is about eight thousand years older than previously thought.
