What's great about the Dapschauskas paper is the way they test models against this record (huge apologies for misspelling the lead author's name earlier. This should be correct).
Notably they focus on our own FCC model.

For analysis of the southern African record, they rely heavily on the pioneering work on MSA pigments by our colleague Ian Watts. Ian, now in the #UCL Anthropology dept, has worked on collections of ochre at #Blombos #PinnaclePoint and #Wonderwerk and is preparing work on #BorderCave, all key sites in Southern Africa.

Ian did not just pioneer close examination of ochre, he was also way ahead of the field in the early 90s -- before we got major evidence from Blombos and Pinnacle Point -- in arguing that the human symbolic revolution was an African phenomenon. At that time this was NOT the fashionable view, with the 'Human Revolution' predicated on the European #UpperPaleolithic at 40,000 years ago. Ian simply knew that was wrong.

6/
Images: archaeologist Ian Watts, and a slide of his analysis of ochre frequency at Border Cave, which jumps between c.180 to c.160 ka

Most importantly, the authors "view...habitual ochre use as a proxy for the emergence of regular collective rituals". While ochre definitely can have functional uses, ritualised, visual display use appears primary: MSA ochres reflect costly and repetitive behaviours, including long-distance procurement and intentional colour selection.

"The overall dominance of grinding use-wear on archaeological specimens from the MSA indicates the primary production of powder". The authors note red residues produced on shell beads, when these appear later in sites like #Blombos, #Taforalt and now #Bizmoune. This likely results from bodypaint on skin or deliberate colouring.

In sum, they "view a large proportion of ochre finds from the MSA as the material remains of past ritual activity". This builds cogently on the position the #FemaleCosmeticCoalitions team took three decades ago that the ochre marked #ritual activity which was critical to the emergence of #symbolic cognition.

5/

Image: from the Moroccan MSA at Bizmoune dating for large blocks of ochre accompanying ochre-residued shell beads are now back to 140 thousand years ago.