Engraved ostrich eggshell fragments from around 60,000 years ago found in the Diepkloof Rock Shelter. Archaeologists believe the fragments probably originate from eggs used as storage containers.
Photo: Pierre-Jean Texier.
Archaeologists led by researchers from the Università di Bologna, Italy have shown that designs carved more than 60,000 years ago on Ostrich shells were deliberate, structured designs, not random or casually improvised marks. They published their findings in PLOS ONE in February 2026.
The problem for creationists is that none of this evidence should exist if their favourite Bible myths were true. There could have been neither humans making these engravings nor ostriches producing the eggshells 60,000 years ago, because, according to the young-Earth creationist chronology, Earth itself did not yet exist. Nor could delicate engraved fragments have remained embedded in recognisable, archaeologically ordered deposits if the entire region had subsequently been submerged and violently rearranged by a planet-covering flood only a few thousand years ago.
And yet the evidence is there. Creationists must therefore perform the customary mental gymnastics—rejecting the dating, misrepresenting the geology, bearing false witness against the scientists or even presenting their god as a cosmic trickster who deliberately formed evidence such as this to fool us when it created the world — anything, apparently, rather than allowing demonstrable facts to modify a cherished belief.
The researchers assembled a dataset of images showing 112 engraved ostrich-eggshell fragments from Diepkloof and Klipdrift in South Africa and Apollo 11 in Namibia. Three badly worn fragments were excluded from the statistical analysis because their markings could not be reconstructed reliably. Using geometric and statistical techniques not previously applied systematically to these artefacts, the team traced the lines and examined their angles, alignments, intersections and spatial relationships.
The analysis identified recurring cognitive operations involving rotation, translation, iteration and “embedding”—the nesting of elements within additional hierarchical levels of a design. Parallel lines, near-right angles, hatched bands, grids and diamond-shaped motifs were combined according to consistent spatial rules. More than 90 per cent of the statistically assessed fragments conformed closely to models of regular parallel alignment or angular organisation, while orthogonality and spatial regularity characterised more than 80 per cent of the dataset overall.
These were therefore not merely scratches or repeated movements. The engravers exercised deliberate control over the placement and orientation of the lines, constructing what the researchers describe as a “geometric grammar”. The patterns indicate visual-spatial planning and suggest that their makers had an overall conception of the design before or while engraving it. They provide an early material expression of abstract, rule-governed graphic thought.
These artefacts do not, by themselves, identify the first appearance of abstract thought, nor do they provide a complete history of the evolution of human intelligence. What they offer is a remarkably ancient snapshot of sophisticated cognition in Homo sapiens. Together with the wider archaeological record, they fit an evolutionary history in which human cognitive and symbolic abilities arose and developed within the hominin lineage—not one in which fully modern humans, complete with all their intellectual abilities, were produced suddenly by magic a few thousand years ago.
There is enough for a substantial side-panel. One useful point to emphasise is that the famous painted stones from Apollo 11 are much younger than its engraved eggshell fragments and should not be conflated with them.
Diepkloof, Klipdrift and Apollo 11. The engraved ostrich-eggshell fragments examined in this research came from three rock shelters associated with the Howiesons Poort, a Middle Stone Age technological tradition found across southern Africa. Dating broadly to about 65,000–60,000 years ago, Howiesons Poort assemblages include carefully made stone blades and backed tools, composite implements, the controlled heating of stone and evidence of symbolic or decorative behaviour.The paper in PLOS ONE was accompanied by an article in Unibo Magazine, the University of Bologna’s online news magazine:
The name describes a widespread technocomplex—a recurring combination of technologies and artefact types—not a single tribe or homogeneous culture.
Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa
Diepkloof is a large quartzitic-sandstone shelter overlooking the Verlorenvlei River in South Africa’s Western Cape, about 17 kilometres from the present Atlantic shoreline. Its deposits preserve one of southern Africa’s most extensive Middle Stone Age sequences, recording intermittent human occupation from before 130,000 to approximately 45,000 years ago.
The shelter contains layers of ash, charcoal, hearth debris and burnt bedding left by successive groups of occupants. Archaeologists have also recovered stone tools, animal bones, marine shells and exceptionally well-preserved plant remains, providing evidence of the environment, diet and activities of the people who used the shelter.
Hundreds of engraved ostrich-eggshell fragments have been recovered from its Howiesons Poort layers. Some pieces preserve perforated openings, supporting the interpretation that the eggshells had been converted into portable water flasks. The engravings include parallel lines, intersecting lines, cross-hatching and especially hatched bands. Their distribution through numerous successive layers indicates a graphic tradition maintained for several thousand years rather than a single episode of decoration.
The precise chronology of some Diepkloof layers remains debated. The authors of the 2026 study adopted a date range of approximately 65,000–60,000 years ago for comparison with the other sites.
In 2024, Diepkloof was included in the UNESCO World Heritage property The Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa.
Klipdrift Shelter, South Africa
Klipdrift Shelter forms part of a cave complex in the De Hoop Nature Reserve on South Africa’s southern Cape coast. It should not be confused with the adjacent Klipdrift Cave: the shelter contains the relevant Middle Stone Age deposits, whereas the cave has principally yielded much younger Later Stone Age material.
Optically stimulated luminescence dating places the Howiesons Poort occupation of Klipdrift Shelter between approximately 65,500 and 59,400 years ago. Its well-preserved layers contain hearths, stone tools, ochre, marine shells, animal and plant remains and a human molar. The inhabitants exploited both terrestrial animals and coastal resources.
The site has also provided evidence that silcrete was deliberately heated to improve its suitability for making stone tools. Small backed pieces could have been mounted on wooden shafts using compound adhesives, demonstrating considerable technological knowledge and forward planning.
More than 95 engraved ostrich-eggshell fragments have been reported from its Howiesons Poort layers. Their designs include parallel lines, cross-hatching and diamond-shaped arrangements. In the 2026 analysis, the diamond motif was confined to Klipdrift and appeared in the final phase of its Howiesons Poort sequence, suggesting that particular designs could have local or chronological significance.
Apollo 11 Rockshelter, Namibia
Apollo 11 Rockshelter lies in the Huns Mountains of southern Namibia. It contains the longest known late-Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological sequence in the country, with deposits representing several Middle Stone Age traditions—including the Still Bay and Howiesons Poort—as well as later occupations.
The shelter received its modern name from archaeologist Wolfgang Erich Wendt, who was excavating there in 1969 when he heard of the safe return of the Apollo 11 lunar crew.
Only two engraved ostrich-eggshell fragments from Apollo 11 were available for the 2026 geometric analysis. Both carry intersecting, approximately parallel lines associated with the Howiesons Poort occupation. Although the sample is small, it extends the geographical distribution of this engraving practice well beyond the South African Cape.
Apollo 11 is better known for seven painted quartzite slabs recovered from a much later archaeological level. Painted with charcoal, ochre and white pigment and depicting animals or possible composite creatures, these portable artworks date to about 30,000 years ago and are among the earliest securely dated examples of figurative art in Africa. They are important in their own right but are not contemporary with the approximately 60,000-year-old engraved eggshells.
Why the three sites matter
Taken together, the sites show that engraving ostrich-eggshell containers was not an isolated accident or the idiosyncratic activity of one individual. Related geometric practices occurred across widely separated parts of southern Africa and persisted through multiple occupation layers.
At the same time, differences between the sites—hatched bands at Diepkloof, diamonds at Klipdrift and intersecting parallel lines at Apollo 11—suggest local traditions and changes through time. The engravers shared the cognitive ability to organise lines according to geometric rules, but they did not simply reproduce one rigid, unchanging design.
References:2026 geometric analysis
The detailed Dipkloof study
The University of Bergen’s Klipdrift site account
The Apollo 11 stratigraphic study.
Humanity’s oldest geometries, engraved on ostrich eggs
An analysis of the markings found on hundreds of eggshell fragments dating back more than 60,000 years, unearthed between South Africa and Namibia, has revealed our ancestors’ remarkable ability to organise visual space according to abstract principles
At several archaeological sites in southern Africa, hundreds of highly unusual fragments of ostrich eggs have been found. Dating back more than 60,000 years, the shells were engraved by groups of Homo sapiens who lived in that region.
A new investigation, led by researchers from the University of Bologna, has now revealed for the first time that these engravings on ostrich eggshells were not random or improvised, but followed recurring and surprisingly organised geometric rules. The study - published in the journal PLOS One - shows the presence of a genuine cognitive organisation of forms, based on parallelism, orthogonality and the repetition of lines and regular patterns.
These signs reveal a surprisingly structured, geometric way of thinking. We are talking about people who did not simply draw lines, but organised them according to recurring principles - parallelisms, grids, rotations and systematic repetitions: a visual grammar in embryo.
Professor Silvia Ferrara, senior author
Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies
University of Bologna
Bologna, Italy.
The ostrich eggshells were most likely used as water containers. The researchers carried out a quantitative and systematic investigation of 112 fragments from two South African archaeological sites (Diepkloof and Klipdrift) and one site in Namibia (Apollo 11). By applying methods of geometric and statistical analysis never previously used on these artefacts, the study made it possible to reconstruct in detail the lines, angles and trajectories of the markings.
The results show that more than 80% of the configurations analysed display coherent spatial regularities, with repeated use of angles close to 90° and groups of parallel lines. The most complex compositions - such as hatched bands, grids and diamond-shaped motifs - reveal cognitive operations of rotation, translation, repetition and “embedding”, i.e. the ability to build hierarchical levels of signs within the same surface.
These engravings are organised and consistent, and show mastery of geometric relationships. There is not only a process of repeating signs: there is real visuo-spatial planning, as if the authors already had an overall image of the figure in mind before engraving it.
Professor Silvia Ferrara, senior author
Beyond the possible meanings of the markings, the authors stress that the implications of the study concern above all the cognitive foundations that made it possible to create these decorations. The ability to construct visual configurations structured according to specific rules can be seen as a key indicator of the emergence of abstract thought - a crucial step in the evolution of human thinking.
Our analysis shows that Homo sapiens 60,000 years ago already possessed a remarkable ability to organise visual space according to abstract principles. Transforming simple forms into complex systems by following defined rules is a deeply human trait that has characterised our history over millennia, from the creation of decorations to the development of symbolic systems and, ultimately, writing.
Valentina Decembrini, first author
Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies
University of Bologna
Bologna, Italy.
Publication:
What these engraved fragments preserve is not merely a collection of decorations but evidence of established human cultural traditions. Across three widely separated sites, people living about 60,000 years ago converted ostrich eggs into useful containers and embellished them with carefully planned geometric patterns. Differences between sites and between successive archaeological layers show that these traditions varied geographically and changed over time—precisely what we should expect from cultures developing through ordinary human invention, learning and transmission.
For young-Earth creationism, the chronology alone is fatal. These people were organising visual space according to abstract rules more than 50,000 years before the supposed “Creation Week”. The dates do not depend upon one questionable object or an isolated measurement: the fragments occur within ordered sequences containing stone tools, hearths, food remains and environmental evidence, all of which together document repeated human occupation over immense periods of time.
Nor is there any trace of the global catastrophe that creationists place only a few thousand years ago. The shelters preserve fine layers of ash, charcoal, burnt bedding and fragile eggshell accumulated during successive occupations. They have not been churned together, swept away or buried beneath the chaotic debris that a mountain-covering global flood would necessarily have produced. Instead, their stratigraphy records continuity, local environmental change and human activity—not planetary destruction.
The researchers needed neither a magical creation nor a supernatural injection of intelligence to explain what they found. They saw members of our own evolved species displaying sophisticated planning, abstraction and cultural learning deep in the African Stone Age. Once again, science reveals a richly detailed human past where creationism insists there could have been no past at all—and once again, it is the evidence, not the mythology, that survives examination.
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