Christopher Henshilwood

Christopher Stuart Henshilwood (* in Cape Town ) is a South African archaeologist . He has been Professor of African Archeology at the University of Bergen since 2007 and, since 2008, at the same time Professor of the Chair for "the Origins of Modern Human Behavior" at the Witwatersrand University, which was set up for him . Henshilwood became internationally known because of his excavations in the Blombos Cave , in which - according to his study published in 2002 - the oldest known art works of mankind had been discovered.

research

Shell jewelry discovered by Henshilwood in Blombos Cave

Christopher Henshilwood is from Cape Town . He was already in his mid-30s and had worked in the family department store until then, when he began to study archeology at the University of Cape Town in 1985 “out of sheer boredom” . After graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1989 and another research-oriented degree (BA hons.) In 1990, he earned a doctorate in archeology at the University of Cambridge in 1995 . He then worked as a research assistant at the University of Cape Town and from 1999 to 2004 also taught at Stony Brook University in New York .

As early as 1991, Henshilwood discovered various stone tools and bone tools in the Blombos Cave , which could be assigned to the so-called "Still Bay Industry" about 71,000 years ago (= Middle Stone Age ). Henshilwood's grandfather had acquired the area around the cave in 1961 in order to be able to go fishing; Henshilwood had vacationed there several times as a teenager and even then picked up stone tools. From 1997 research funds were available to him for a major excavation campaign in the Blombos Cave, the sensational results of which reveal incised pieces of ocher , which, at around 77,000 years old, are significantly older than all works of art from the Neolithic period known up to this discovery .

In 2005, the discovery of numerous pierced snail shells colored with red chalk, which had been recovered from a 75,000-year-old layer of the Blombos cave, was published.

In 1999, Henshilwood founded the African Heritage Research Institute in Cape Town , the aim of which is to advance research into the early days of humans ( Homo sapiens ).

Honors

Christopher Henshilwood was appointed Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques in France in 2003 .

He is also a member of the Association of Heritage Assessment Practitioners , the Society for Africanist Archaeologists , the Association of South African Professional Archaeologists and, since 2009, the Academy of Science of South Africa .

Works (selection)

with Francesco d'Errico: Homo Symbolicus: The dawn of language, imagination and spirituality. John Benjamin Publishing Company, 2011, ISBN 978-9027211897
C. Henshilwood et al .: A 100,000 Year Old Ocher Processing Workshop at Blombos Cave, South Africa. In: Science , Volume 334, No. 6053, 2011, pp. 219-222, DOI: 10.1126 / science.1211535
with Benoît Dubreuil: The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort, 77–59 ka: Symbolic Material Culture and the Evolution of the Mind during the African Middle Stone Age. In: Current Anthropology , Volume 52, No. 3, 2011, pp. 361-400, DOI: 10.1086 / 660022
C. Henshilwood et al .: Middle Stone Age shell beads from South Africa. In: Science , Volume 384, No. 5669, 2004, p. 404, DOI: 10.1126 / science.1095905
with Curtis W. Marean: The origin of modern human behavior: A review and critique of models and test implications. In: Current Anthropology , Volume 44, No. 5, 2003, pp. 627-651, DOI: 10.1086 / 377665
C. Henshilwood et al .: Blombos Cave, southern Cape, South Africa: Preliminary report on the 1992-1999 excavations of the Middle Stone Age levels. In: Journal of Archaeological Science , Volume 28, No. 4, 2001, pp. 421-448, DOI: 10.1006 / jasc.2000.0638
C. Henshilwood et al .: An early bone tool industry from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for the origins of modern human behavior, symbolism and language. In: Journal of Human Evolution , Volume 41, No. 6, 2001, pp. 631-678, DOI: 10.1006 / jhev.2001.0515

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Christopher S. Henshilwood et al .: Emergence of Modern Human Behavior: Middle Stone Age Engravings from South Africa. In: Science , Volume 295, 2002, pp. 1278-1280, doi : 10.1126 / science.1067575 . See also this illustration in the article Stone Age artists scratched enigmatic signs on spiegel.de from January 11, 2002 and the article Ancient stone marks may roll back date of 'modern behavior'. from The Japan Times of January 13, 2002
^ ^A ^b Jeff Tollefson: Cultural roots. In: Nature , Volume 482, 2012, pp. 290-292, doi: 10.1038 / 482290a , full text
↑ Francesco d'Errico et al .: Nassarius kraussianus shell beads from Blombos Cave: evidence for symbolic behavior in the Middle Stone Age. In: Journal of Human Evolution , Volume 48, No. 1, 2005, pp. 3–24, DOI: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2004.09.002 , full text (PDF; 1.6 MB)

personal data
SURNAME	Henshilwood, Christopher
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Henshilwood, Christopher Stuart; Henshilwood, Chris
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	South African archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH	20th century
PLACE OF BIRTH	Cape Town

[Henshilwood2002-1] Christopher S. Henshilwood et al .: Emergence of Modern Human Behavior: Middle Stone Age Engravings from South Africa. In: Science , Volume 295, 2002, pp. 1278-1280, doi : 10.1126 / science.1067575 . See also this illustration in the article Stone Age artists scratched enigmatic signs on spiegel.de from January 11, 2002 and the article Ancient stone marks may roll back date of 'modern behavior'. from The Japan Times of January 13, 2002

[Tollefson2012-2] A ^b Jeff Tollefson: Cultural roots. In: Nature , Volume 482, 2012, pp. 290-292, doi: 10.1038 / 482290a , full text

[3] Francesco d'Errico et al .: Nassarius kraussianus shell beads from Blombos Cave: evidence for symbolic behavior in the Middle Stone Age. In: Journal of Human Evolution , Volume 48, No. 1, 2005, pp. 3–24, DOI: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2004.09.002 , full text (PDF; 1.6 MB)