Applied Mathematics and Sciences: An International Journal (MathSJ )

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Applied Mathematics and Sciences: An International Journal (MathSJ )

ISSN : 2349 - 6223

https://www.airccse.com/mathsj/index.html

Submission Deadline : Sept 05, 2026

H-Index - 9

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Establishing a Functional use for the Middle Stone Age (MSA) Engraved Blombos Ochre Stone through Image-based Vectorization, Use-Wear Constraints, and Experimental Reconstruction

Silvia Stein1, Morris Chukhman2 and Sergii Makhin3, 1 Cultural Heritage, 2 University of Illinois Chicago, USA 3 Cognitive Neuroscientist, Germany

ABSTRACT
An engraved ochre stone from Blombos Cave (southern Cape, South Africa) witha cross-hatched geometric motif dated to the Middle Stone Age Still Bay/M1 sequence (c. 75,000 – 77,000 years ago) is typically treated as an early abstract geometric representation without having a practical function for early humans [1]. Our case study suggests a function for the engraved ochre stone based on its proximity to evidence of fish net weights found in the Blombos cave; the perforated Nassarius Kraussianus shell net-weightsfound in the same site [1]. Building on the 2025 articlepublished in this Journal that hypothesized a functional alternative for punctured shells as string-borne net weights [1], this article focuses on the engraved ochre as related to net making and evaluates two competing hypotheses: (H1) the cross-hatched motif is a procedural template that encodes a diamond-mesh netting operation; (H0) the motif is non-procedural (decorative, symbolic, or incidental) and will not support a constraint-satisfying reconstruction as a net for shell net weights.

KEYWORDS
Blombos Cave; Engraved Ochre; Vectorization; Computational Motif Analysis; Experimental Archaeology; Nets; Material Engagement Theory.

Paper PDF Link : https://airccse.com/mathsj/papers/13226mathsj01.pdf

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