Watson quoted the work of a Scottish scientist named Alexander Cairns-Smith who presented what sounds like fairly convincing evidence that evolution quite possibly began with clay as clay can absorb other molecules and it has within it growing, evolving crystal structures.
Cairns-Smith argued that the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecule, found in all life on our planet, is pretty fragile, and he felt that it unlikely that it was the original source of genetic material. He saw the crystal as a likely candidate because it consists of matter that has the capacity to organize and replicate itself.
Lescaux Cave Paintings, French Pyrenees  |
A burial site in France, estimated at 46,000 years, consisted of the remains of an old man whose body had been packed around with red ocher.
In Africa's Swaziland, the burial site of a child estimated at 80,000 years was found dusted with ash and ocher.
The oldest mine known in the world is near there, at a placed called Lion Cavern, and it was a red ocher mine.
The mine is so old that carbon dating has proven ineffective.
The Swazi, a southern African tribe, reside primarily in Swaziland. It is a small landlocked country of 6,704 square miles (17,363 square kilometers) in southern Africa. There are four distinctive levels of terrain: the high veld, middle veld, low veld, and the Lubombo mountain range. (A veld is a grassland.). The total number of Swazis is about 1 million people. The two major cities are Mbabane and Manzini."
The Swazis referred to such ocher mines as "Ibomvo," which means "the holy red" …
Bakgatla Land, Transvaal, Southern AfricaTo the Bakgatla of the western Transvaal it was "the blood of the earth," and was an essential ingredient in the enactment of ancient rituals and ceremonies.
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