A 115,000-year-old expedient bone technology at Lingjing, Henan, China

Systematic bone tool production at 1.5 million years ago

Recent evidence indicates that the emergence of stone tool technology occurred before the appearance of the genus Homo1 and may potentially be traced back deep into the primate evolutionary line2. Conversely, osseous technologies are apparently exclusive of later hominins from approximately 2 million years ago (Ma)3,4, whereas the earliest systematic production of bone tools is currently restricted to European Acheulean sites 400-250 thousand years ago5,6. Here we document an assemblage of bone tools shaped by knapping found within a single stratigraphic horizon at Olduvai Gorge dated to 1.5 Ma. Large mammal limb bone fragments, mostly from hippopotamus and elephant, were shaped to produce various tools, including massive elongated implements. Before our discovery, bone artefact production in pre-Middle Stone Age African contexts was widely considered as episodic, expedient and unrepresentative of early Homo toolkits. However, our results demonstrate that at the transition between the Oldowan and the early Acheulean, East African hominins developed an original cultural innovation that entailed a transfer and adaptation of knapping skills from stone to bone. By producing technologically and morphologically standardized bone tools, early Acheulean toolmakers unravelled technological repertoires that were previously thought to have appeared routinely more than 1 million years later.

First identification of a Neanderthal bone spear point through an interdisciplinary analysis at Abric Romaní (NE Iberian Peninsula)

Osseous industry has been observed at an increasing number of Neanderthal sites. Bone fragments were used for practical purposes, and a range of bone shaping techniques were employed. The variability of bone tools observed in different assemblages reflects considerable functional diversity. However, no bone spear points have been reported from these contexts. A comprehensive analysis of a bone spear point from the Middle Palaeolithic site of Abric Romaní (Barcelona, Spain) is presented. Through an interdisciplinary, multi-technique, and multi-scale approach combining technology, taphonomy, and functional analysis, compelling evidence for manufacture, use, and hafting was uncovered. The specimen exhibits clear signs of intentional knapping. The presence of microscopic linear impact marks, an impact fracture at the tip and potential internal stress fractures indicate its use as a spear. Furthermore, the observed wear pattern and a morphological adjustment of the trabecular tissue support the hafting hypothesis. Abric Romaní contributes to our understanding of Neanderthal hunting behaviour and the significance of composite bone tools in their technological repertoire 50,000 years ago. This discovery highlights the flexibility and adaptability of Neanderthal technology, providing evidence of bone technology that is sometimes obscured in the archaeological record and offering valuable insights into their hunting strategies during the Middle Palaeolithic.

Middle and Late Pleistocene Denisovan subsistence at Baishiya Karst Cave

Genetic and fragmented palaeoanthropological data suggest that Denisovans were once widely distributed across eastern Eurasia1-3. Despite limited archaeological evidence, this indicates that Denisovans were capable of adapting to a highly diverse range of environments. Here we integrate zooarchaeological and proteomic analyses of the late Middle to Late Pleistocene faunal assemblage from Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau, where a Denisovan mandible and Denisovan sedimentary mitochondrial DNA were found3,4. Using zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry, we identify a new hominin rib specimen that dates to approximately 48-32 thousand years ago (layer 3). Shotgun proteomic analysis taxonomically assigns this specimen to the Denisovan lineage, extending their presence at Baishiya Karst Cave well into the Late Pleistocene. Throughout the stratigraphic sequence, the faunal assemblage is dominated by Caprinae, together with megaherbivores, carnivores, small mammals and birds. The high proportion of anthropogenic modifications on the bone surfaces suggests that Denisovans were the primary agent of faunal accumulation. The chaîne opératoire of carcass processing indicates that animal taxa were exploited for their meat, marrow and hides, while bone was also used as raw material for the production of tools. Our results shed light on the behaviour of Denisovans and their adaptations to the diverse and fluctuating environments of the late Middle and Late Pleistocene of eastern Eurasia.

Initial Upper Palaeolithic material culture by 45,000 years ago at Shiyu in northern China

The geographic expansion of Homo sapiens populations into southeastern Europe occurred by ∼47,000 years ago (∼47 ka), marked by Initial Upper Palaeolithic (IUP) technology. H. sapiens was present in western Siberia by ∼45 ka, and IUP industries indicate early entries by ∼50 ka in the Russian Altai and 46-45 ka in northern Mongolia. H. sapiens was in northeastern Asia by ∼40 ka, with a single IUP site in China dating to 43-41 ka. Here we describe an IUP assemblage from Shiyu in northern China, dating to ∼45 ka. Shiyu contains a stone tool assemblage produced by Levallois and Volumetric Blade Reduction methods, the long-distance transfer of obsidian from sources in China and the Russian Far East (800-1,000 km away), increased hunting skills denoted by the selective culling of adult equids and the recovery of tanged and hafted projectile points with evidence of impact fractures, and the presence of a worked bone tool and a shaped graphite disc. Shiyu exhibits a set of advanced cultural behaviours, and together with the recovery of a now-lost human cranial bone, the record supports an expansion of H. sapiens into eastern Asia by about 45 ka.

Taphonomic and technological analyses of Lower Palaeolithic bone tools from Clacton-on-Sea, UK

The exceptional survival of Middle Pleistocene wooden spears at Schöningen (Germany) and Clacton-on-Sea (UK) provides tantalizing evidence for the widespread use of organic raw materials by early humans. At Clacton, less well-known organic artefacts include modified bones that were identified by the Abbé Henri Breuil in the 1920s. Some of these pieces were described and figured by Hazzledine Warren in his classic 1951 paper on the flint industry from the Clacton Channel, but they have been either overlooked in subsequent studies or dismissed as the product of natural damage. We provide the first detailed analysis of two Clactonian bone tools found by Warren and a previously unrecognized example recovered in 1934 during excavations directed by Mary Leakey. Microscopic examination of percussion damage suggests the bones were used as knapping hammers to shape or resharpen flake tools. Early Palaeolithic bone tools are exceedingly rare, and the Clacton examples are the earliest known organic knapping hammers associated with a core-and-flake (Mode 1) lithic technology. The use of soft hammers for knapping challenges the consensus that Clactonian flintknapping was undertaken solely with hard hammerstones, thus removing a major technological and behavioural difference used to distinguish the Clactonian from late Acheulean handaxe (Mode 2) industries.

Technological and functional analysis of 80-60 ka bone wedges from Sibudu (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa)

Fully shaped, morphologically standardized bone tools are generally considered reliable indicators of the emergence of modern behavior. We report the discovery of 23 double-beveled bone tools from ~ 80,000-60,000-year-old archaeological layers at Sibudu Cave in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We analyzed the texture of use-wear on the archaeological bone tools, and on bone tool replicas experimentally used in debarking trees, processing rabbit pelts with and without an ochre compound, digging in sediment in and outside a cave, and on ethnographic artefacts. Debarking trees and digging in humus-rich soil produce use-wear patterns closely matching those observed on most Sibudu tools. This tool type is associated with three different Middle Stone Age cultural traditions at Sibudu that span 20,000 years, yet they are absent at contemporaneous sites. Our results support a scenario in which some southern African early modern human groups developed and locally maintained specific, highly standardized cultural traits while sharing others at a sub-continental scale. We demonstrate that technological and texture analyses are effective means by which to infer past behaviors and assess the significance of prehistoric cultural innovations.