Tag Archive for 'Bone tool'

Taxonomic identification of the 173 worked (a) and unworked (b) bone objects: (1) blank, Tito Bustillo, sperm whale; (2) projectile point with massive base, Isturitz, blue whale; (3) projectile point, Brassempouy, fin whale; (4) possible foreshaft, Las Caldas, sperm whale; (5) projectile point with massive base, Ermittia, gray whale; (6) unidentified object, Saint-Michel, sperm whale; (7-10) unworked fragments of fin whale bone, Santa Catalina. Image credit: McGrath et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-59486-8.

20,000-Year-Old Whale Bone Tools Found in Spain

May 27, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists have examined a large sample of worked bone objects from 26 Paleolithic cave and rockshelter sites in the Cantabrian region of Spain and...

The 1.5-million-year-old elephant humerus that has been knapped into a tool. Image credit: CSIC.

1.5-Million-Year-Old Bone Tool ‘Factory’ Discovered in Tanzania

Mar 5, 2025 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have documented a bone tool assemblage from a single horizon dated to 1.5 million years ago at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. These bone...

Tusks of straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) and small objects at the site of Castel di Guido, Italy. Image credit: Villa et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256090.

400,000-Year-Old Elephant Bone Tools Unearthed in Italy

Aug 31, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Around 400,000 years ago, pre-modern hominids — likely Neanderthals — at a Middle Pleistocene site in Italy appropriated elephant carcasses...

An ancient Toalean tool. Image credit: Perston et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251138.

Indonesian Hunter-Gatherers Were Making Tiny Point Tools Thousands of Years Ago

May 26, 2021 by News Staff

Archaeologists from Griffith University, the University of New England and the Balai Arkeologi Sulawesi Selatan have examined a collection of stone and...

An artistic rendering of the Horse Butchery Site and the Boxgrove people; it shows how the site was situated in front of towering chalk cliffs on the edge of an intertidal lagoon; the cliffs to the north provided all the flint used in tool making at the site and, within a few hours, the tide would have begun to cover the site in fine silt, preserving evidence of the day’s activity. Image credit: Lauren Gibson / Institute of Archaeology, University College London.

Homo heidelbergensis was Extremely Resourceful, New Research Shows

Sep 3, 2020 by News Staff

New research pieces together the activities and movements of a group of Homo heidelbergensis, a poorly understood species of archaic humans that lived...

1.4-Million-Year-Old Handaxe Unearthed in Ethiopia

Jul 14, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

Paleoanthropologists working at the Konso research area in Ethiopia have found a 1.4-million-year-old large bone fragment shaped into handaxe-like form. The...