How smart were human-like species of
the Stone Age? New research published in the Journal of Archaeological
Science by a team led by paleoanthropologist April Nowell of the University
of Victoria reveals surprisingly sophisticated adaptations by early humans
living 250,000 years ago in a former oasis near Azraq, Jordan.
The research team from UVic and
partner universities in the US and Jordan has found the oldest evidence of
protein residue—the residual remains of butchered animals including horse,
rhinoceros, wild cattle and duck—on stone tools. The discovery draws startling
conclusions about how these early humans subsisted in a very demanding
habitat, thousands of years before Homo sapiens first evolved in Africa.
The team excavated 10,000 stone
tools over three years from what is now a desert in the northwest of Jordan,
but was once a wetland that became increasingly arid habitat 250,000 years ago.
The team closely examined 7,000 of these tools, including scrapers, flakes,
projectile points and hand axes (commonly known as the "Swiss army
knife" of the Paleolithic period), with 44 subsequently selected as
candidates for testing. Of this sample, 17 tools tested positive for protein
residue, i.e. blood and other animal products.
"Researchers have known for
decades about carnivorous behaviours by tool-making hominins dating back 2.5 million
years, but now, for the first time, we have direct evidence of exploitation by
our Stone Age ancestors of specific animals for subsistence," says Nowell.
"The hominins in this region were clearly adaptable and capable of taking
advantage of a wide range of available prey, from rhinoceros to ducks, in an
extremely challenging environment."
"What this tells us about their
lives and complex strategies for survival, such as the highly variable
techniques for prey exploitation, as well as predator avoidance and protection
of carcasses for food, significantly diverges from what we might expect from
this extinct species," continues Nowell. "It opens up our ability to
ask questions about how Middle Pleistocene hominins lived in this region and it
might be a key to understanding the nature of interbreeding and population
dispersals across Eurasia with modern humans and archaic populations such as
Neanderthals."
Another result of this study is the
potential to revolutionize what researchers know about early hominin diets.
"Other researchers with tools as old or older than these tools from sites
in a variety of different environmental settings may also have success when
applying the same
technique to their tools, especially
in the absence of animal remains at those sites," adds Nowell.
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