title: A Milk and Ochre Paint Mixture Used 49,000 Years Ago at Sibudu, South Africa.
abstract: Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, proteomic and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) analyses of residue on a stone flake from a 49,000 year-old layer of Sibudu (South Africa) indicate a mixture of ochre and casein from milk, likely obtained by killing a lactating wild bovid. Ochre powder production and use are documented in Middle Stone Age South African sites but until now there has been no evidence of the use of milk as a binder. Our analyses show that this ochre-based mixture was neither a hafting adhesive nor a residue left after treating animal skins, but a liquid mixture consisting of a powdered pigment mixed with milk; in other words, a paint medium that could have been applied to a surface or to human skin. The significance of our finds also lies in the fact that it establishes the antiquity of the use of milk as a binder well before the introduction of domestic cattle in South Africa in the first millennium AD.
authors.affiliation: University of Colorado Museum, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America; School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; Istituto Italiano di Paleontologia Umana, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Villa
authors.affiliation: School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; Laboratoire Archéologie et Peuplement de l'Afrique, Department of Genetics and Evolution, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pollarolo
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Ilaria
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Degano
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Complesso Universitario Monte S. Angelo, Napoli, Italy.
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Birolo
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pasero
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Cristian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Biagioni
authors.affiliation: Research Lab for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3QY, England.
authors.forename: Katerina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Douka
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Complesso Universitario Monte S. Angelo, Napoli, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vinciguerra
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Jeannette J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Lucejko
authors.affiliation: Evolutionary Studies Institute, Centre of Excellence, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: Lyn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wadley
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D001106:Archaeology; D002417:Cattle; D005260:Female; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D008892:Milk / Q000737:chemistry / Q000266:history*; D010150:Paint / Q000032:analysis / Q000266:history*; D040901:Proteomics; D013019:South Africa; D013052:Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission