Doodling is 73,000 years old

(Image credit: iStock/Alexcpt)

published 12 September 2018

Don't worry about your kids drawing on the walls. It turns out they're following an example that dates back 73,000 years.

Seven years after discovering a set of cross-hatched red marks on a piece of stone, scientists are ready to declare them the world's first drawing. First discovered in South Africa in 2011, the marks, called "L13," are ambiguous enough that they couldn't be sure whether they were naturally formed or purposefully scrawled. But after analyzing the materials that make up those marks, researchers have determined that they were put there by an early human.

In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature, the scientists explain that the marks were drawn using a red ochre "crayon." Although ochre was used for many things by ancient peoples, the nature of the markings are enough to determine that this was an artistic endeavor — humanity's first. The previous oldest-known drawings are about 9,000 years younger than this one, Gizmodo reported, though there are human-made engravings that go back even further.

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Shivani is the editorial assistant at TheWeek.com and has previously written for StreetEasy and Mic.com. A graduate of the physics and journalism departments at NYU, Shivani currently lives in Brooklyn and spends free time cooking, watching TV, and taking too many selfies.

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