Abstract
For a long while, the controversy surrounding several bone tools coming from pre-Upper Palaeolithic contexts favoured the view of Homo sapiens as the only species of the genus Homo capable of modifying animal bones into specialised tools. However, evidence such as South African Early Stone Age modified bones, European Lower Palaeolithic flaked bone tools, along with Middle and Late Pleistocene bone retouchers, led to a re-evaluation of the conception of Homo sapiens as the exclusive manufacturer of specialised bone tools. The evidence presented herein include use wear and bone residues identified on two flint scrapers as well as a sawing mark on a fallow deer tibia, not associated with butchering activities. Dated to more than 300 kya, the evidence here presented is among the earliest related to tool-assisted bone working intended for non-dietary purposes, and contributes to the debate over the recognition of bone working as a much older behaviour than previously thought. The results of this study come from the application of a combined methodological approach, comprising use wear analysis, residue analysis, and taphonomy. This approach allowed for the retrieval of both direct and indirect evidence of tool-assisted bone working, at the Lower Palaeolithic site of Qesem Cave (Israel).
Highlights
Homo sapiens’ supposedly exclusive manufacture of specialised tools made from modified animal bones, along with other aspects such as art and specialised hunting weapons, has led to the definition of a clear behavioural and cognitive boundary between H. sapiens and the other species of the genus Homo[1]
Animal bones were used by early hominids for termite foraging at the sites of Swartkrans and Sterkfontein, dated between 1.8 and 1 mya[2,3]
As in the cases of Sterkfontein and Swartkrans, the use wear identified on the tips of the tools suggests their use for digging soil, most likely to be associated with termite foraging
Summary
Homo sapiens’ supposedly exclusive manufacture of specialised tools made from modified animal bones, along with other aspects such as art and specialised hunting weapons, has led to the definition of a clear behavioural and cognitive boundary between H. sapiens and the other species of the genus Homo[1]. Further evidence of specialised bone tool production comes from the Middle Palaeolithic sites of Pech de l’Azé I and Abri Peyrony in France In these sites, animal ribs were shaped by Neanderthals to create bone smoothers (lissoirs), which were used to process hide[16]. We present evidence related to the processing of animal bones, unrelated to dietary purposes and performed using specific actions and specific stone tools. This evidence originates from ongoing excavations at the Middle Pleistocene site of Qesem Cave in Israel and has not yet been observed in any other context as old as this. The evidence presented here is at least 300 kya old—possibly closer to 400 kya17,18—and is potentially some of the earliest evidence of deliberate stone tool-assisted bone working associated with non-dietary purposes
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