Archaeologists from the University of Central London and the city’s Natural History Museum studying a nearly 500,000-year-old elephant bone hammer have determined the ancient tool was made by Neanderthals or another early human ancestor, Homo heidelbergensis, millennia before the first modern humans (Homo sapiens) walked the Earth.
The research team behind the new analysis said that the unexpectedly sophisticated craftsmanship of the elephant bone hammer, the oldest such prehistoric tool ever found in Europe, offers an “extraordinary glimpse” into humanity’s earliest ancestors.
Elephant Bone Hammer Hundreds of Thousands of Years Older Than Previous Finds
According to a statement detailing the new analysis, the tool was originally discovered in the early 1990s at an archaeological site in Boxgrove, near Chichester in West Sussex, England. Numerous ancient tools made from flint, none and antlers have been found at the site, but the hammer is the only tool made from elephant bone.
Elephant bone tools have been discovered in Tanzania, dating back 1.5 million years. The oldest elephant bone tools found in Europe are tens of thousands of years younger, and those were discovered in southern Europe.
To date, very few elephant bone tools older than 43,000 years have been previously identified. As a result, researchers didn’t immediately identify the Boxgrove artefact as a tool until it was studied in detail.
3D Microscopic Analysis Reveals Ancient Tool’s Manufacture and Use
In the team’s published study, the elephant bone hammer is described as triangular, measuring 11 centimeters long, 6 meters wide, and 3 centimeters thick. The researchers said the tool also bears marks that suggest it was “intentionally shaped” for specific utility.
It is mostly composed of cortical bone, which is the dense outer layer of bone tissue. The tool’s density suggests it may have been made from a mammoth, but the fragment is too incomplete to identify the exact species or body part the bone comes from.
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