In Italy, found a large number of hominid tools made of elephant bones
Researchers from Italy, USA, Switzerland and France found that about 400 thousand years ago, the ancient inhabitants of modern Castel di Guido, on the outskirts of Rome, made a large number of tools from elephant bones using methods that became widespread a hundred thousand years later. The work was published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE .
In the Stone Age, on the site of Castel di Guido, there was a ravine with a flowing stream. Straight-tussed elephants (Paleoloxodon antiquus), which then lived in Europe, descended there to drink. However, animals sometimes fell off the slopes and died. Their bones were used by local hominids (the authors of the work believe that these were the Neanderthals who recently appeared in Europe). As part of the study, a record large set of 98 bone instruments, about 400 thousand years old, was identified. Some of them were pointed and could be used for cutting meat. Others were wedge-shaped and were intended to cut through the heavy, long bones of elephants.
“We also know about other places in the world where sets of bone tools were found. But nowhere else is there such a variety of clearly defined forms, ”said archaeologist Paola Villa.
All indications are that the hominids produced their instruments using a standardized approach. According to scientists, this is a bit like one person working on a primitive assembly line.
“In Castel di Guido, people routinely broke the long bones of elephants and produced standard blanks for making bone tools. Such abilities became commonplace much later, ”explained Villa. Of particular interest to researchers was one tool that was different from the rest. It was not carved from the bone of an elephant, but rather a bison. The instrument was very long and polished on one side. It resembles what archaeologists call a lissoir – a sleek tool that hominids used to dress their skin. This type of instrument was widespread only about 300,000 years ago. That is, the found artifact had no analogues for 100 thousand years.
All this led scientists to assume that something special was happening on the Italian site in ancient times. At the same time, Villa and his colleagues do not believe that the hominids from Castel di Guido were smarter than their counterparts from other parts of Europe. Most likely, they simply used the resources that they had more efficiently than others. There were few large pieces of flint in this region of Italy. The ancient inhabitants, not being able to make many stone tools, replaced them with bone ones.
