The world’s oldest human-crafted bone tools are 1.5 million years old, according to a new study. This suggests that human ancestors were more intelligent than previously believed. The ancient tools were discovered at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and are a million years older than any other shaped bone tools previously uncovered.
Palaeolithic archaeologist at the Centre for Human and Social Sciences of the Spanish National Research Council and study author Ignacio de la Torre said in a statement that the hominins who created these tools “knew how to incorporate technical innovations by adapting their knowledge of stonework to the manipulation of bone remains”. The findings suggest “advances in the cognitive abilities and mental structures of these hominins.”
The researchers studied 27 bone fragments that had been turned into tools through a process used in stool manufacturing called knapping. The technique involves using one larger stone to break pieces off a smaller stone and achieve a sharp edge around the latter.
According to Live Science, evidence of stone tool knapping dates back at least 3.3 million years in East Africa. However, only a small number of bone tools shaped by the same process have been discovered, which could most likely be due to the decay that took place over time. The fragments of the bone may have been preserved because they were buried quickly.
However, when the team of researchers looked closely at all the bone parts, they were able to show that the removal of bone flakes was not a result of carnivore activity but instead of hominins purposely shaping the bone. The findings were published Wednesday, March 5, in the journal Nature.
The experts were able to go even further and find out what species of animals were used to make the bone tools – eight were made out of elephant bones, six from hippos and two from a cow-like species. As the majority of the non-tool animal bones were from bovids, this suggests that the elephant and hippo bones were specifically chose for their tool-making properties, such as their length and thickness.
It is not exactly clear which hominin species made the tools, as both Homo erectus and Parathoropus boisei lived in the Olduvai Gorge region 1.5 million years ago, long before modern humans. However, this discovery of knapped bone tools over a million years earlier than expected is significant in understanding human evolution, according to the study.
Before creating large stone tools like hand axes, early hominins tested out their skills on bone, an innovation that was previously not seen at archaeological sites in East Africa.
“We were excited to find these bone tools from such an early timeframe,” study co-author Renata Peters, an archaeologist at University College London, said in the statement. “It means that human ancestors were capable of transferring skills from stone to bone, a level of complex cognition that we haven’t seen elsewhere for another million years.”