Christopher S. Henshilwood
South African archaeologist and paleoanthropologist known for leading excavations at Blombos Cave that revealed early symbolic behavior in Homo sapiens, including engraved ochre and shell beads. He has held professorships at the University of Bergen and the University of the Witwatersrand and has directed research programs on the origins of modern human behavior.
Books
This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.
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1. Homo Symbolicus
The Dawn of Language, Imagination and Spirituality
An interdisciplinary collection exploring the origins of symbolic behavior in early modern humans, synthesizing archaeological, cognitive, and linguistic evidence to trace the deep roots of language, art, ritual, and spirituality. Drawing on artifacts such as engraved ochre, shell beads, and rock art—especially from southern African sites—it evaluates the social and cognitive conditions that enabled symbolism, debates the capacities of Neanderthals, and shows how material culture reveals imagination, identity, and meaning in the Middle and Later Stone Age.