Discovered the

Scientists say they have discovered the oldest known human painting on a small piece of rock in South Africa.

This drawing is dated to about 73,000 years old, and shows parallel diagonal lines carved into the stone in vermilion.

The figure shows parallel carved lines carved into stone.

Scientists have found a small piece of painting - some say it looks a bit like a hashtag - in Blombos Cave on the south coast.

According to the report, this finding is 'the most important indicator of modern knowledge' in our species.

Although scientists have found older engravings around the world, the study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday revealed lines carved on the first abstract marker stone tablet.

The article said the ancient painter used a 'lipstick chalk' to engrave on stone.

Scientists found broken rock in Blombos Cave, 300km east of Cape Town - (Photo from Reuters).

Humanity has used lipstick, a clay color, for at least 285,000 years.

Archaeologist Christopher Henshilwood told Reuters that the whole picture was 'more likely to be complicated'.

'The sudden end of all the lines carved on the edges of the stone pieces shows that the original drawing extends on a larger surface'.

Henshilwood works at Bergen University in Norway and the University of Witwatersrand of South Africa and leads the study of the painting.

He told Reuters that while the research team was 'hesitant to call it a picture' , it almost certainly meant something to the person who drew it.

There are countless other artifacts found in Blombos Cave, 300km east of Cape Town, including vermilion beads, carved ocher plots, and a drawing kit dating back about 100,000 years. .

Modern humans, also known as homo sapiens, were the first known species to appear more than 315,000 years ago in what is now Africa.