Room 2: First people of southern Africa.
The creativity of our early human ancestors paved the way for later
cultural and technological innovations that now form part of our
collective heritage. Only when clear traces of symbolic behaviour
appear in the archaeological record in the form of paintings, engravings,
incised ochre, beads and other expressive items, can we infer that
their makers were fully human like ourselves.
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Engraved ostrich eggshell flask , Early 20th century, Molepolole, Botswana.
For at least 50 000 years, flasks made from ostrich eggshells have been used by hunter-gatherers in southern Africa to carry and store water. The meaning of the designs is not known but some may have expressed ownership.
UCT collections at Iziko
Engraved ostrich eggshell flask, early 20th century, Central Namibia
Iziko, SAM
Most flasks are not engraved, but those that are have a variety of patterning, from cross-hatched grid lines, curves and geometric designs to the less common images of animals.
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