The standardized production of bone tools by our ancestors pushed back one million years

Twenty-seven standardised bone tools dating back more than 1.5 million years were recently discovered in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania by a team of scientists from the CNRS and l’Université de Bordeaux¹, in collaboration with international and Tanzanian researchers. This discovery challenges our understanding of early hominin technological evolution, as the oldest previously known standardised bone tools date back approximately 500,000 years.²

During these excavations, the researchers identified tools shaped on-site from hippopotamus bones within the same geological layer. More surprisingly, they also found elephant bones that had been transported to the site as either tools or raw materials for tool-making. This behaviour suggests an early ability for planning and the transmission of know-how among these ancient populations.

These results were obtained via an approach combining archaeological excavations and experimental archaeology.³ The study will be published on 5 March in the journal Nature.

Notes

1. Working at the From Prehistory to the Present: Culture, Environment, and Anthropology laboratory (CNRS/Ministère de la Culture/Université de Bordeaux). The project received support from the European Research Council (ERC).
2. The study shows indisputable traces of the intentional cutting, shaping, and modification of bone edges, thereby giving them an elongated shape.
3. Experimental archaeology involves reproducing the techniques and gestures of ancient societies to better understand the production and use of their tools, their habitats, and their everyday objects.