WASHINGTON – A terrible human was regularly using animal bones to make cutting tools 1.5 million years ago.
A newly discovered cache of 27 sculptures and sharp bones from elephants and hippos on the site of Tanzania’s All-Bai Valley pushes back the date of ancient bone use around a million years behind. Researchers know that early people created simple tools out of stones as early as 3.3 million years ago.
The new discoveries published on Wednesday in nature were “having a much more complex toolkit than before” incorporating a variety of materials by ancient humans, said William Harcourt Smith, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History, who was not involved in the study.
The preserved bone tools were measured up to 16 inches and could have been made by breaking the thick ends of the bones of the leg and knocking off the flakes from the remaining bone shaft using stones. Research co-author Ignacio de la Torre, a researcher at the Spanish National Research Council, said the technique was used to create one sharp edge and one tip.
The bone tools are “probably used as hand axes” (handheld blades not attached to the rod), to slaughter dead animals, he said.
A bone tool found in Tanzania’s All-By Valley in 2023 at the CSIC-Plistene Archeology Lab in Madrid. Through Apsioniki theodoropoulou/csic
These blades are convenient for removing flesh from elephant and hippo corpses, but are not used as spears or projectiles. “I don’t think they were hunting these animals. They were probably cleaning,” he said.
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Several artifacts have shown signs of being hit to remove more than dozens of flakes, revealing sustained craftsmanship.
The uniform selection of bones (thin and heavy leg bones from certain animals) and patterns of consistent change reveal that early humans had intentionally chosen and carved these bones, said Milia Pacheco, a paleontologist at the Federal University of San Carlos in Brazil, who was not involved in the study.
Bones show minimal signs of erosion, trampling, or gnaw by other animals. She added that it eliminates the possibility that natural causes can lead to shapes of tools.
