In my post about mankind's oldest known ritual I briefly hinted at the use of red ochre in a symbolic way and because of that, I feel like it's important to dedicate a whole post to it, so I can talk about it more in depth.
Red ochre (also written as red ocher) is by definition an iron-rich rock that can be used as pigment, but it's most commonly associated with hematite.
[Red ochre, picture from British Museum]
The considerable lengths people went to get red ochre even when other materials or ochre of different colours were more readily available shows us how important it had to be.
By 100.000 years ago red ochre was used in numerous ways and found in most Middle Stone Age sites. We have several interesting examples of it in South Africa.
In the Pinnacle Point cave over 500 pieces of ochre had been found, dating between 164.000 and 92.000 years ago.
Not all of them had signs of being used, but those that did where the brightest and most saturated ones.
At Klasies River, over 300 pieces of ochre had been found, dating between 110.000 and 60.000 years ago. Most pieces are red and some were intentionally heated, probably to enhance their colour.
Here, other than pieces that were used for grinding, we can see some with clear incisions on them.
We have other examples in the Blombos Cave with 8.000 pieces dating between 100.000 to 70.000 years ago, mostly of a very saturated red.
These are particularly important because in the oldest layers there is proof of red ochre being possibly used to create paints, made from mixing it with charcoal and seal fat.
We sadly don't know how they were applied and for what reason.
In the Sibudu Cave we have even more pieces of ochre, over 9.000, dating between 77.000 and 37.600 years ago, again mostly bright red in colour.
At this site, numerous objects have red ochre powder residues on them.
At Klein Kliphuis, over 900 pieces were found, dating between 66.000 and 58.000 years ago, some of them ground, some engraved.
More than 300 pieces were analysed from Klipdrift Shelter, a large number of them are red.
And these are just some examples.
At Qafzeh cave in Israel, we again see several pieces of ochre, dating to roughly 90.000 years ago, mostly red even if yellow ochre was vastly available. There is evidence of people traveling between 8 and 60 kilometres for the red ochre and of some of it being used on perforated sea shells found in burials.
Now that we can imagine how vastly used it was, let's talk about the interesting uses of red ochre.
We know that pieces were ground and sometimes mixed with other materials to create pigments and paints, but there is more.
Some pieces were crayon shaped, and even if there's hardly any evidence of coloured lines from the Middle Stone Age period, the most accepted hypothesis is that they were used to trace lines on soft materials, like leather, wood or human skin, that were probably decorative.
We also know about engravings, in which the stones were deliberately scored with a tool to create patterns.
[Cross-hatched ochre piece from Blombos Cave, by Caroline Seawright]
Currently there's no way to decipher the meaning of these engravings, but we know they were a novel behaviour at the time and that social or symbolic meaning was attributed to them.
Talking of the powder, red ochre staining has been found on several objects, varying from grinding stones, to bone and stone tools.
It has been found on tools used to scrape and pierce animal skins, and this is believed to be proof of the skin being treated with red ochre to preserve it and soften it.
It was also used to create adhesives, but even if it could have been substituted just as effectively with other materials (sometimes more readily available), it wasn't.
This could point to a symbolism associated with red ochre.
As we said before, we also know of perforated shells that are stained from it. They were probably used as beads for decoration and because of that it's not clear if they were coloured with it or if the pigment transfered to them because it was used on the skin or on animal skins that were worn.
When we look at the modern world, red ochre is used in several indigenous African societies as cosmetic, medication and as part of rituals.
We also see it used by the same people as a great natural sun protection and insect repellent.
This could have been a very important resource even in Middle Stone Age, so there's no way to be completely sure that painting the skin with red ochre was symbolic or part of rituals.
But there's also no denying that the colour red is often linked to symbolism and rituals.
Red was even the first colour to be named, so we have to take account of its importance.
It's the colour of blood and because of that, it can easily be connected with fertility and hunt, and in the light of this, red ochre could have been very useful for rituals.
Rituals often include the transformation of material things as well, other than symbolism, and painting objects or the body is a very easy and straight-forward way to implement this kind of transformation.
Proof of rituals and symbolism of this kind in the Middle Stone Age would simply be a strong presence of red ochre pigments, especially bright red ones, on the sites.
As I wrote before, we have more than enough of that, but we can't deny the other practical uses of red ochre and red ochre pigment.
Even if there's no way of proving that red ochre had spiritual, symbolic or ritualistic significance in the Middle Stone Age, it's definitely interesting to note its importance and what a powerful symbol red could have been as far back as more than 150.000 years ago.
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