Hominin trackways from the southern Cape Coast of South Africa
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The Cape south coast of South Africa has been shown to be of pivotal importance in the origin of cognitively modern Humans in the Middle Stone Age, with sites such as Blombos Cave, Pinnacle Point, and Klasies River achieving international renown. Examples of the early emergence of modern human behaviour include adornment through the use of ochre, creation of jewellery, development of microlithic technology, heat treatment of stone tools, manufacture of bone tools, and the creation of abstract symbols, both as petroglyphs, and pictographs. Curtis Marean, documenting the first known systematic exploitation of seafood by Humans, postulated that the Cape south coast formed a refugium that facilitated Human survival during the harsh climate of Marine Isotope Stage 6.