The globe ’s onetime modified gigantic off-white pieces may have been used by kid to mimic the putz of their parent , or possibly as instruct aids to help them produce utensils of their own . give away at the situation of Medzhibozh A in westerly Ukraine , the extraordinary items were excavate from a layer of rock and roll dated to 400,000 years ago , long before modern humans had strive Eurasia .
“ The discovery was indeed unexpected . We had never seen or heard of ivory artefacts from the Lower Palaeolithic , ” explain field of study authorVadim Stepanchukin an email to IFLScience . “ The surprise come in not only from the use of tusk , but also from the extremely strange nature of the artefacts themselves . They are extremely little and intimately resemble stone artefacts , ” he add up .
endure from about 2.6 million to 200,000 years ago , the Lower Palaeolithic – or Early Stone Age – saw the emergence of stone and bone tool production among ancient hominid species . However , ivoryartifacts do n’t look in the archaeological platter until the start of the Upper Palaeolithic some 50,000 old age ago , when new proficiency for drilling , carving , and splitting this softer , more bendable material were developed .
Yet at Medzhibozh A , Stepanchuk and his colleague Oleksandr Naumenko came across 24 small fragments ofmammoth ivoryalongside other artifacts made of flint and quartz . Detailed morphological analysis of these item revealed that 11 of the ivory pieces had been designedly worked byancient human being , with three of these having been manipulated using a hammerstone and anvil in the same agency that pit creature are knapped into condition – thus confirming their status as the world ’s oldest known intentionally - modify off-white objects .
However , Stepanchuk explain that “ these fragments are highly diminished , and ivory of this size of it and texture does not produce a durable working edge – for sure not compare to stone . ” Indeed , as the study authors indicate out in their write - up , ivory typically measures between two and four hardness units on the Mohs scale , while flint and quartz glass rate at seven to eight unit .
This make ivory a poor selection of material for functionaltools , get out the researchers to speculate as to the purpose of these staggeringly quondam relics . “ One line of reasoning is technical , ” tell Stepanchuk . “ The website is place in an area with limited admission to quality stone resources , and the inhabitants may have try out with various types of rocks – and rock’n’roll - like material – for break off . Ivory could have been one such material , essay for its suitableness . ”
However , give the unsuitability of these item as tools , Stepanchuk says it ’s also potential that “ the small-arm were not designate for strictly useful purposes . ” or else , he hint that “ these objects may muse imitative or fiddle doings – perhaps by children – replicate the action of adult knappers . ”
Alternatively , the writer write that the bone pieces could be the event of educational activity , as older members of a prehistoric community of interests instruct shaver the bedrock ofstone knappingusing off-white as a practice material .
While the pieces are far too one-time to have been made byHomo sapiens , it ’s still indecipherable on the button whichspeciesof archaic human being was responsible for their yield . Whoever fashion the bone objects , though , Stepanchuk say that their discovery “ suggest an additional dimension to the behavioral repertoire of early hominins . ”
“ It hint that even at this other stage , hominins may have mesh in what might be described as imitative or socially propel activities , ” he says .
The survey is release in theInternational Journal of Osteoarchaeology .
