Animal proteins and 60,000-year-old ochre identified in South Africa

A rare mixture found in ochre-rich sediments

The analyses focused on samples taken from sedimentary layers rich in ochre, an iron oxide-based mineral pigment, deposited around 60,000 years ago at Kilpdrift. According to Kyushu University, it is the simultaneous presence of animal collagen and ochre that caught the researchers' attention, as such an association remains uncommon in the archaeological record.

The Kilpdrift site lies within the De Hoop Nature Reserve on South Africa's southern coast. The cliffs bordering it were occupied by humans during the Middle Stone Age, a period when Homo sapiens groups used flaked stone tools and developed increasingly complex behaviours. The sediments preserved in this context offer a valuable window onto these distant societies.

Palaeoproteomics, a method that identifies species

To reach this result, the researchers used palaeoproteomics, a discipline that studies proteins preserved in ancient remains. Collagen, the main protein of connective tissue, often survives better than DNA under certain conditions and carries sequences specific to each animal species, making it possible to trace the animal of origin.

Using this approach, the team was able to attribute the collagen to the common eland (Taurotragus oryx), a large antelope of savannas and open environments. This precise identification links sediments to specific animal remains, something field observations alone cannot achieve. It also opens the way to a better understanding of the resources human groups exploited in their immediate environment.

Two hypotheses to explain the presence of these proteins

The authors of the study put forward two possibilities. The first suggests that materials from these large antelopes, such as fats or tissues, were mixed with powdered ochre. The second considers the use of hides treated with ochre at the cliff site, perhaps to soften or preserve them.

In both cases, the populations of the time would have combined animal resources with a red pigment, a behaviour that could relate to making adhesives, preparing hides, or practices with symbolic meaning. The available data do not yet allow these scenarios to be distinguished, and further analyses will be needed to clarify the exact function of this mixture.

Significance for the history of pigments in southern Africa

Ochre is attested very early in southern Africa. The nearby site of Blombos Cave, on the same coast, has yielded a pigment-production workshop, showing that mastery of this material was already long-established and organised. The new study fits into this context by documenting possible uses of ochre well beyond simple colouring.

This research adds to knowledge of the techniques of middle and late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers. It also demonstrates the potential of molecular analyses applied to sediments, where the objects themselves have disappeared, an approach that could be extended to other sites on the continent.