<P> The Makapansgat pebble, or the pebble of many faces, (ca . 3,000,000 BP) is a 260 - gram reddish - brown jasperite cobble with natural chipping and wear patterns that make it look like a crude rendition of a human face . The pebble is interesting in that it was found some distance from any possible natural source, associated with the bones of Australopithecus africanus in a cave in Makapansgat, South Africa . Though it is definitely not a manufactured object, it has been suggested that some australopithecine might have recognized it as a symbolic face, in possibly the earliest example of symbolic thinking or aesthetic sense in the human heritage, and brought the pebble back to the cave . This would make it a candidate for the oldest known manuport . </P> <P> The teacher Wilfred I. Eizman found it in the Makapansgat, a dolerite cave in the Makapan Valley north of Mokopane, Limpopo, South Africa in 1925 . Almost 50 years later, Raymond Dart was the first to describe it in 1974 . </P> <P> The Makapansgat pebble cannot be seen as art if a usual definition of the term is used, as the object was found and not made . Nevertheless that an Australopithecus may have recognized a face would reveal that the early hominid had some sort of capacity for symbolic thinking, necessary for the development of art and language . If the early hominid has seen this object really as a face, or had magical speculations towards this object or just enjoyed the pebble remains unclear . </P>

Is it valid to refer to the makapansgat pebble as an artwork