CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA—IFL Science reports that an evaluation of a sandstone object discovered in 2018 on South Africa’s coastline suggests that it may be an image of a stingray, a creature native to Africa’s southern coast. Optically stimulated luminescence dating indicates that the sand forming the stone, whose surface is about 14 inches long and 12 inches wide, was last exposed to sunlight some 130,000 years ago. To test the object’s resemblance to a stingray, a team of researchers led by Charles Helm of Nelson Mandela University laid images of a blue stingray (Dasyatis chrysonata) on it and found that the two closely matched in size and proportion, except for the tail, which is missing from the artifact. Helm and his colleagues think the object could have been formed when an early human came across a stranded stingray on the beach and traced around it in the sand. “This is the first and thus far the only example that suggests tracing from this time period,” Helm said. “The chances of something like this being preserved and amenable to our interpretation are remote, so it is possible that this may be the only example ever identified, but we can always hope that more will become apparent,” he concluded. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Rock Art Research. To read about the earliest known rock art, go to "World's First Artists," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2021.
