New excavations at the Chez-Pinaud-Jonzac website reveal that Neanderthals, like contemporary human beings, had a diverse bone tool industry, challenging assumptions about their technological and cognitive limitations. (Artists principle).
Comparable to contemporary people, Neanderthals crafted and utilized bone tools for their daily needs.
Were anatomically modern-day humans the only ones who understood how to turn bone into tools? A brand-new discovery at the Chez-Pinaud-Jonzac Neanderthal website by an international research study team puts this question to rest. Released in the journal PLOS ONE, the findings illuminate an unknown aspect of Neanderthal technology.
Beginning with 45,000 years earlier, anatomically modern people started to appear in Western Europe, eventually changing the last remaining Neanderthal communities. This duration likewise marked significant shifts in material culture, especially the introduction of a broad array of bone artifacts– ranging from searching tools and decorative accessories to intricately sculpted figurines– by contemporary human groups.
Multi-functional bone tool, retouched on one of its edges, used as a retoucher and chisel. Credit: M.Baumann-TraceoLab-ULi ège.
Their lack from Neanderthal websites has actually led to the presumption that these groups did not produce bone tools and executes, in some cases presumed to show cognitive distinctions between the 2 populations. Considering that Neanderthals did not understand how to process this raw product, they were limited to getting bone pieces among butchery stays, utilizing them uniquely as retouchers for forming flint tools.
New excavations at the Neanderthal website of Chez-Pinaud-Jonzac (Charente-Maritime), brought out by an international group given that 2019, have actually made it possible to reevaluate this assumption. Present studies have revealed that bone tools are as numerous as flint ones. Moreover, their diversity offers proof for a genuine industry that consists not just of retouchers but likewise of cutting tools, easiers, chisels, and scrapers, used for numerous activities and on multiple products.
Micro-tomographic views of the internal damage of the multi-functional tool. Credit: M.Baumann– TraceoLab-ULiège & & Nicolas Vanderesse– CNRS.
These bone tools are recognizable based on traces of manufacture and use present on their surface areas along with within the tools themselves utilizing X-ray microtomography. Unlike examples made by contemporary people that are usually shaped by scraping and abrasion, these tools were mainly made by percussion.
These 2 websites, located on either side of the Neanderthal variety, testify to the truth that, like contemporary human beings, Neanderthal made and used bone tools for their daily requirements. Bone tools represent a brand-new methods for exploring and understanding Neanderthal innovation, which has apparently not yet revealed all its secrets.
Recommendation: “On the Quina side: A Neanderthal bone market at Chez-Pinaud site, France” by Malvina Baumann, Hugues Plisson, Serge Maury, Sylvain Renou, Hélène Coqueugniot, Nicolas Vanderesse, Ksenyia Kolobova, Svetlana Shnaider, Veerle Rots, Guillaume Guérin and William Rendu, 14 June 2023, PLOS ONE.DOI: 10.1371/ journal.pone.0284081.
The research study was moneyed by Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, the Russian Science Foundation, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Fondation Maison des Sciences de lHomme, the Ministère de la Culture, and the European Research Council.
Were anatomically contemporary people the only ones who understood how to turn bone into tools? Existing research studies have shown that bone tools are as many as flint ones. These two sites, located on either side of the Neanderthal range, testify to the reality that, like modern people, Neanderthal made and used bone tools for their everyday needs. Bone tools represent a new methods for exploring and comprehending Neanderthal technology, which has apparently not yet revealed all its tricks.
