Archaeologists excavating 400,000-year-old rock in western Ukraine have uncovered fragments of what could be the oldest human-made ivory objects ever found. These artefacts would have been too soft to use as cutting tools, but they could have been used as teaching aids, the researchers suggest.
鈥淚f the interpretations are correct, they add to an apparently increasing appreciation of the intelligence of pre-modern humans,鈥� says at the University of Nevada.
The site is located in the Southern Bug Valley, around 300 kilometres south of Kyiv.
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Researchers discovered 24 pieces of ivory alongside putative hearths and artefacts of quartz and flint. Bones at the site indicate the presence of ancient horses, woolly rhinoceros and large feline species such as leopards or lions. The ivory probably came from Mammuthus trogontherii, a large species of mammoth common across Pleistocene Eurasia.
Bone tools have a deep history in the archaeological record, with the earliest examples being around 1.5 million years old. Ivory artefacts made of mammoth tusk, a much softer and more pliable material than bone, hadn鈥檛 previously been found beyond about 50,000 years ago.
鈥淒ue to its softness, ivory does not provide a durable sharp edge like stone,鈥� says at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Given the age and location of the site, the pieces of ivory may be associated with early hominins like Homo heidelbergensis, says Stepanchuk. However, the site presently lacks fossil evidence to confirm the species, he says.
To better understand the ivory, Stepanchuk and his colleague subjected the fragments to a thorough microscopic and 3D analysis. Their results suggest 11 of the fragments show signs of having been deliberately chipped away by humans, while three pieces hint at a specific tool manufacturing technique in which a material is hammered over a rock anvil.
Each of the fragments is relatively small. Given their size and softness, it remains unclear what they would have been used for. 鈥淲e hesitate to call them 鈥榯ools鈥� in the functional sense,鈥� says Stepanchuk. 鈥淭he lack of any clear practical or technological function suggests these objects may reflect a different kind of activity.鈥�
Stepanchuk鈥檚 team suspects the ivory was gathered and used to teach inexperienced members of the group, possibly children, how to properly craft tools. 鈥淭he purpose wasn鈥檛 to make a functional tool, but to produce something that simply resembled one 鈥� perhaps as a toy or a training piece,鈥� says Stepanchuk.
It isn鈥檛 yet possible to rule out natural processes for the creation of these fragments, says at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution in Tarragona, Spain. 鈥淐onducting experiments to replicate these modifications could be useful in providing more convincing arguments.鈥�
Haynes says many elephant species lose parts of their tusks while fighting, so it is possible these fragments resulted from such scuffles. Comparative experiments with modern elephant tusks might help illuminate what deliberate flaking looks like, he adds.
Stepanchuk hopes researchers will uncover more ancient ivory pieces to clarify their potential role in early hominin history. 鈥淭his site deserves further research,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t offers a chance to better understand not only the deep human past, but also ourselves.鈥�
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
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Neanderthals, ancient humans and cave art: France
