Not all homes are built from scratch or constructed from ground zero; there are some that are, for the lack of better expression, unearthed. Consider the world’s oldest home, a figure of intrigue and as a matter of fact, massive achievement for those engaged in the task of excavation of old, dated sites.
Recently, one of the finest and perhaps oldest discoveries in the history of modern mankind was made, one that has a direct link with a country we fondly describe as the ‘Rainbow Nation!’
What we usually consider as fond and unique to the nation of South Africa is its bewildering landscape, the roaring Wildlife, the scenic beaches, even a majestic cricket team that one cannot imagine the modern conception of the sport without.
But in recent times, the country has also been linked to what’s been called the world’s oldest home, now discovered in South Africa’s Wonderwerk Cave, in the Kalahari desert.
But the fundamental question is- what made the researchers determine that what was eventually excavated at the Wonderwerk cave is indeed world’s oldest home?
As a matter of fact, the excavations conducted by a group of researchers led them to discover a cave that believably held human occupants some two million years ago.
This precise and timely discovery excited Mr. Ron Shaar, who happens to be a lead author on a paper presented by a panel of geologists and archeologists (from the University of Toronto and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who happened to share:
“We can now say with confidence that our human ancestors were making simple Oldowan stone tools inside the Wonderwerk Cave 1.8 million years ago.”
There are complex findings that have been made, which have in turn, enabled the researchers to ascertain a momentum shift in the kinds of tools and equipments that may have been put into usage around a million years ago.
For instance, upon the excavation enabled one to examine that how from using sharp tools like flakes and chopping tools, the early man moved to early hand axes before the prehistoric ancestors discovered the use of fire!
“We carefully removed hundreds of tiny sediment samples from the cave walls and measured their magnetic signal,” described Shaar. “Our lab analysis showed that some of the samples were magnetized to the south instead of the north, which is the direction of today’s magnetic field. Since the exact timing of these magnetic ‘reversals’ is globally recognized, it gave us clues to the antiquity of the entire sequence of layers in the cave.”
The world’s oldest home, nestled in a cave in South Africa has ample evidences of things as vivid as burnt bones, sediment, tools as well as ash, all of which seem to validate the key conclusion that fire was a major substance then, just as it is even now, to this day.
It would be used as a tool back then by the prehistoric ancestors.
All of that being said, the discovery of the world’s oldest home is no random finding; for it truly holds an indescribable and spiritual significance to the contemporary as well as the ancestral residents of the area.
Things that might have functioned like an active household once upon a time do happen to serve mighty value of what might have been, how it was like a million years ago. In that regard, what’s been unearthed in South Africa, is nothing shy than a sacred chapter in man’s dated history. Pretty much like talking an incredibly long walk back in the time where architecture with its principles was perhaps just as relevant and resourceful then as it is now!