Khoisan (Khoi + San), Grimaldi

 Ancient Southern Africa: Khoi, San Tribe

Khoisan (Khoi + San) - Is the name for the two original ethnic groups of Southern Africa.

Siberian 21,000 BCE

From the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic period, a hunting and gathering culture known as the Sangoan occupied this area. Khoi people resemble their ancient skeletal remains and are believed to be their descendants. The Khoisan people were the inhabitants of much of southern Africa before the southward Bantu expansion, and later European colonisation.

Both Khoi and San people share physical and linguistic characteristics, and it seems clear that the Khoi branched forth from the San when they adopted the practise of herding cattle and goats from neighbouring Bantu speaking groups. Culturally they are divided into the hunter gatherer San people (commonly known as Bushmen) and the pastoral Khoi. In the Khoisan language, consonants are pronounced with a clicking sound.

This prompted their Dutch invaders to call them “Hottentots” – a derogatory word meaning "stutterer" in the language of the Dutch invaders; who, together with British and German settlers, would eventually exterminate them with the Herero and Namaqua Genocides.

Venus of Willendorf

Today's San and Khoisan: The world’s oldest human group. According to Knight et al. (2003) Y-haplogroup A, the most diverse or oldest-diverging Y haplogroup transmitted purely by patrilineal descent, is today present in various Khoisan groups at frequencies of 12-44%, and the other Y-haplogroups present have been formed by recent admixture of Bantu male lineages E3a (18-54%), and in some groups, noticeable Pygmy traces are visible (B2b).

The Khoisan also shows the largest genetic diversity in matrilineally transmitted mt DNA of all human populations. Their original mt DNA haplogroups L1d and L1k are one of the oldest-diverging female lineages as well.

Grimaldi Skeletons

Around 75,000 years ago, in a cave near the southern Cape shoreline in South Africa, a human drilled tiny holes into the shells of snails and strung them as beads to make the oldest known jewelry.

The shells are marked with traces of red ochre, suggesting they were either decorated with iron oxide pigment or; they were worn by someone wearing primitive makeup with iron oxide pigment.  They are the first evidence of artistic creativity and symbolism in Modern Man. This artistic creativity in the Khoisan; would be continued and improved upon.

Grimaldi

One of the first evidences of this historic journey of Grimaldi, was found at the caverns of Grimaldi (Baousse-Rousse), between Mentone and Ventimiglia and on the Italian side of the international boundary, these caverns form one of the most compact groups of Palaeolithic caverns in all Europe. Counting two small rock-shelters, the group includes nine stations, the most important being the Grotte des Enfants, La Barma Grande, Grotte du Cavillon and the Grotte du Prince.

General attention was first called to this region many years ago by Dr. Paul Riviere's discovery of a human skeleton in the Grotte du Cavillon, the so-called homme de Menton, now in the Natural History Museum, Paris.

Here Rivière demonstrated the presence of deliberate burials and ornamented clothing in 1872. Later five skeletons in all were found at La Barma Grande, and two of children, in the Grotte des Enfants, whence its name. Interest in archaeology and ownership of one of the caverns (Grotte du Prince), led the Prince of Monaco, Prince Albert I Grimaldi (1848-1922), to provide for a systematic exploration of the caverns: thus the fossils became known as "Grimaldi" in his honour.

Fossil remains of these ancient Africans have also been found in France, Switzerland, Central Europe, Bulgaria, Russia, and as Far East as Siberia. The African Khoisan nature of the Fossils was first documented by Boule, Marcellin & Vallois, in their book "Fossil Men" The Dryden Press (1957).

Just as exciting as the fossil finds, were the artifact finds at the Balzi Rossi, or Red Rocks (also known as the Grimaldi Caves), were Louis Alexandre Jullien, carried out the excavations that led, at the end of the last century, to the discovery of fifteen figurines, called the Balzi Rossi Venuses. Many other sites across Europe and Asia have also produced Grimaldi Venuses: many of them Steatopygia Females, and many of normal proportion females.

Notable of these are the Venus of Willendorf: found near Krems, Austria. The Venus of Brassempouy, found in France in 1892.

Grimaldi Cave Painting

 It should be noted; that though all Grimaldi figures are not of Steatopygia Females, that style of figure, is the signature of Grimaldi. As demonstrated by the Venuses, Bust reproductions of Skulls, and other artifacts. The Grimaldi people, like modern day Africans, show great variation in facial features, hair styles, clothing and adornment. They show a particular liking for bracelets, necklaces, and pendants.

Please note: One of the sad, and unfortunate facts of life, is that many Anthropologists, Researchers and Academics, still refuse to acknowledge that Africans were the first Human colonisers of Europe. To hide this fact, they prefer to use the terms Aurignacian and Gravettian cultures; which is fine, it still means Grimaldi. However, the current fad of attributing Grimaldi artifacts to the Humanoid Cro-Magnon is in all ways, mystifying. After all, thought different, Cro-Magnon like Grimaldi, was a Black African. 

DNA: Knight et al.
Researcher:  Dr. Paul Riviere, Book: Fossil Men Boule, Marcellin & Vallois