A group of archaeologists headed by Dr Paola Villa from the University of Colorado Museum, Boulder, Colorado, has discovered a mixture of ochre and casein from milk dating to 49,000 years ago that Stone Age South Africans may have used to adorn themselves with or to decorate stone or wooden slabs.

Ochre powder production and use are documented in Stone Age South African sites but until now there has been no evidence of the use of milk as a binder.

“This is the first time a paint containing milk and ochre has ever been found in association with early humans in South Africa. The milk likely was obtained by killing lactating members of the bovid family such as buffalo, eland, kudu and impala,” said Dr Villa, lead author of the paper reporting the results in the journal PLoS ONE.

“Obtaining milk from a lactating wild bovid also suggests that the people may have attributed a special significance and value to that product.”

She added: “cattle were not domesticated in South Africa until 1,000 to 2,000 years ago. Wild South African bovids are known to separate from the herd when giving birth and usually attempt to hide their young, a behavior that may have made them easy prey for experienced Middle Stone Age hunters.”

The paint mixture was found on a stone flake from a 49,000 year-old layer of Sibudu, a large rock shelter in northern KwaZulu-Natal, which was occupied by anatomically modern Homo sapiens in the Middle Stone Age from roughly 77,000 years ago to about 38,000 years ago.

The scientists used several high-tech chemical and elemental analyses to verify the presence of casein, the major protein of milk, on the flake.

“The dried paint compound is preserved on the stone flake that may have been used as a mixing implement to combine ochre and milk, or as an applicator,” Dr Villa said.

“Body painting is widely practiced by the indigenous San people in South Africa, and is depicted in ancient rock art. While there are no ethnographic precedents for mixing ochre with milk as a body paint, the modern Himba people in Namibia mix ochre with butter as a coloring agent for skin, hair and leather clothing,” she said.

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Villa P et al. 2015. A Milk and Ochre Paint Mixture Used 49,000 Years Ago at Sibudu, South Africa. PLoS ONE 10 (6): e0131273; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0131273