The discovery of wall paintings in Indonesian caves suggests that the human ability to express ourselves began before we trekked out of AfricaOn the third-floor corridor of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington,in a battered metal locker, archaeologist Alison Brooks has filed away two small cardboard boxes. Each contains several toothbrush-sized instruments made of bone. With their fragile serrated blades, and these would contain been highly effective weapons.
Nor is there doubt about their targets – for the exquisitely carved blades were found under nine feet of mud at Katanda,on the banks of the Semliki river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “These were harpoon heads,” said Brooks. “Some of the best I contain near across.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com