The piece was discovered in England in the 1990s but had not been identified as a tool until now. It was crafted from elephant or mammoth bone almost half a million years ago, making it the oldest tool of this material found in Europe. It was found at an archaeological site in Boxgrove, near Chichester (England), a place where numerous flint and bone tools from other animals have been unearthed. However, this is the first one made from elephant bone to be discovered at this site.
In Africa, specifically in the Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, elephant bone tools dating back 1.5 million years have been found. However, prior to this discovery, no elephant tool found in Europe was over 500,000 years old, with very few being older than 43,000 years when modern humans began to spread across Europe, leaving behind a variety of tools and objects made from ivory and elephant bone.
As detailed by the authors in their new analysis in the journal Science Advances, the fossilized elephant bone tool has a more or less triangular shape and measures 11 centimeters in length, six centimeters in width, and about three centimeters in thickness. It is mainly composed of the dense and thick outer layer of bone tissue, known as cortical bone.
The Boxgrove archaeological site where the tool was foundBoxgrove Project, UCL
The piece has been analyzed using 3D scanners and advanced microscopes that have allowed for a detailed examination of its surface and the marks left by the hominid who crafted it.
The tissue, according to the authors, is thick and dense enough to indicate it comes from an elephant or a mammoth, but the fragment is too incomplete to determine which of the two animal species it belongs to or from which part of the skeleton it originates. However, the marks it presents demonstrate that it was intentionally shaped for use as a tool, as argued by this scientific team from University College London (UCL) and the Natural History Museum in London.
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Although researchers are unsure whether the animal from which this bone originated was hunted or obtained from a carcass, part of the tool's deformation indicates that it was carved while the bone was relatively fresh.
Scientists highlight the "surprisingly sophisticated craftsmanship and skill of the hominid species responsible for its manufacture" of this tool, attributing its authorship to early Neanderthals or Homo heidelbergensis. Their hypothesis is that this instrument served as a soft hammer for sharpening ancient axes and other stone tools that wore down with repeated use.
According to Simon Parfitt, lead researcher of the study, this discovery "demonstrates the ingenuity and adaptability of our ancestors. They possessed not only a deep knowledge of the local materials surrounding them but also a sophisticated understanding of how to manufacture highly refined stone tools," he stated in a press release.
Due to its thick outer layer of tissue, elephant bone would have been more resistant as a hammer than other animal bones available in its ecosystem, making it a highly valued material for crafting such tools. Additionally, mammoths and elephants were not abundant in that geographic area. Therefore, Simon Parfitt believes that "elephant bone must have been a rare but very useful resource, and it was likely a tool of considerable value."
The capabilities revealed by this tool indicate that the population living in this region had a relatively advanced level of technological development, surpassing that of other contemporary prehistoric populations studied through preserved tools and objects.
In the words of Silvia Bello, co-author of the research, "collecting elephant bone fragments, carving them, and repeatedly using them to shape and sharpen stone tools demonstrates an advanced level of complex and abstract thinking."