Oh this is special, a documentary film on the 16,000 year-old record of human use of #redochre on the N American continent (Sunrise, Wyoming).
#Blood-red #pigment is very precious to us, it is the hallmark of human #symbolic culture, taken all around the world as #Homosapiens migrated. The #African record of ritual use goes back half a million years (the Zambian dates at Twin Rivers referred to here are NOT the oldest, I think it's an error of ill-informed AI).
Our very own Ian Watts researched the very oldest cosmetics of humankind at Wonderwerk (Northern Cape, S Africa). I post his paper
#archaeology #anthropology #culture
https://aeon.co/videos/at-a-prehistoric-pigment-mine-researchers-glimpse-our-earliest-moments-in-the-americas