Excavated bone tools from Castel di Guido, Italy. Credit: Villa et al. 2021, PLOS ONE
Elephant bones were used by ancient humans to accomplish amazing feats.
Paola Villa, University of Colorado Boulder archeologist, and her colleagues examined tools found at a site in Italy that had witnessed large numbers of elephants die. The team discovered that the humans who lived at this site around 400,000 years ago took these carcasses and created an extraordinary array of bone tools, some crafted using sophisticated techniques that would not become common for another 100,000.
Villa, an adjoint curator at CU Boulder Museum of Natural History said that "we see other sites using bone tools at the moment." "But, there aren't these many well-defined shapes."
Villa and her coworkers published their findings in PLOS ONE this month.
The study focuses on Castel di Guido near Rome. It was home to a gully formed hundreds of thousands years ago by an ephemeral stream. This environment provided a place where 13-foot tall straight-tusked Elephants (Palaeoloxodon Antiquus) could quench their thirst and sometimes die.
During excavation, elephant tusks were found at Castel di Guido. Credit: Villa et al. 2021, PLOS ONE
Castel di Guido's hominids made great use of the remains and occupied the site for many years. Researchers report that Stone Age residents made tools in a structured, standardized way, much like one person working on an assembly line.
Villa stated that at Castel di Guido, people were breaking long bones from elephants in a standard manner and making standardized blanks for bone tools. This kind of ability didn't become widespread until much later.
Stone Age toolbox
These acts of ingenuity were a great time for all hominids.
Around 400,000 years ago, the first European Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis), began to appear in Europe. Villa believes Castel di Guido's inhabitants were Neanderthals.
Villa stated that you can see the Neanderthal lineage beginning around 400,000 years ago. Castel di Guido considers this a crucial period.
Castel di Guido: A series of pointed tools made from elephant bone. Credit: Villa et al. 2021, PLOS ONE
It could have been productive, too. Villa and her collaborators discovered 98 bone tools in Castel di Guido that were excavated between 1979 and 1991. These findings are the most extensive collection of pre-modern hominid bone tools ever described. The rich toolbox contained a variety of useful tools. Some tools could have been pointed and used to cut meat. Some wedges were useful for breaking long bones and heavy elephant femurs.
Villa explained, "First you create a groove so that you can insert these heavy items with a cutting edge." Then, you hammer the bone, and eventually it will crack.
One tool stood out: A single artifact was discovered that was carved from a wild bovine bone. It was long and smooth at the one end. It looks like a lissoir (or a smoother), which archeologists refer to as a tool used by hominids to treat leather. It's interesting to note that lissoir tools weren't common until around 300,000 years old.
Villa stated that "At other sites, 400,000 years ago people were using just whatever bone fragments were available."
A lissoir (or smoother) tool made of a wild bovine bone. Credit: Villa et al. 2021, PLOS ONE
Useful finds
It seemed like something special was happening at the Italian site.
Villa does not believe that the Castel di Guido hominids are any smarter than other Europeans. These early humans used what they had available. She explained that the region of Italy she spoke of doesn't have large amounts of naturally occurring flint so it was difficult for ancient people to make large stone tools.
The only thing the region may have had was dead elephants. Straight-tusked elephants gradually disappeared from Europe as the Stone Age progressed. These animals might have been found at Castel di Guido's bone-crafters and may have flocked there to drink, sometimes even dying of natural causes. The remains were then discovered by humans who killed them for their long bones.
Villa stated that Castel di Guido's people had complex bone technology because of their cognitive intelligence. "At other assemblages there were enough bone for people to make some pieces but not enough to start a systematic and standardized production of bone tools.
Learn more about how Neanderthals used resin glue to create their stone tools
More information: Paola Ville et al., Elephant bones to the Middle Pleistocene Toolmaker, PLOS One (2021). Information from the Journal: PLoS ONE Paola Villa et., Elephant bones for Middle Pleistocene Toolmaker, (2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256090
