Blombos Cave

Blombos Cave is a coastal rock-shelter in the Western Cape province of South Africa with stratified Middle Stone Age deposits containing examples of early symbolic material culture. Excavations from the 1990s onwards recovered engraved ochre pieces, perforated shell beads and worked bone that have been dated to roughly 100,000-70,000 years before present.

The cave’s archaeological sequence includes well-preserved layers of cultural material and faunal remains that document Middle Stone Age technology and behaviour. Research there has contributed to debates about the origins of modern human cognition and symbolic expression.

Systematic excavations have been led by teams including Christopher Henshilwood since the early 1990s, producing radiometric dates and detailed stratigraphy that underpin interpretations of the finds. Ongoing research has focused on dating, technology and site formation processes.

Blombos Cave is located on the southern Cape coast near Still Bay in the Western Cape, set above the shoreline on a sandstone cliff.

• Key finds: The site has produced engraved ochre, shell beads and other artefacts used as evidence for symbolic behaviour by Middle Stone Age humans around 75,000 years ago.