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Pierced Nassarius shells, worn strung together, at Blombos Cave in South Africa, about 75,000 years ago; the oldest known drawing comes from the same cave a little later (row 236).
The mechanism
A MARK FOR OTHER MINDS
How it was checked
- EvidenceT6 PHYSICAL / OBSERVATION; Status: ADDED 2026-09-19
- Letter eraTHE DECLARATION AND THE DEEP RECORD the awakening to Babel: dated by ruling and by the record, placed by story where the text gives no date
- SourcesARCHAEOLOGY — Henshilwood et al., Science 304:404 (2004)
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