A worked bone assemblage from 120,000–90,000 year old deposits at Contrebandiers Cave, Atlantic Coast, Morocco

iScience

Vera Aldeias¹  Esteban Álvarez-Fernández²  Deborah I. Olszewski³  Curtis W. Marean⁴  Jacopo Niccolò Cerasoni⁵  Teresa E. Steele⁵  Harold L. Dibble⁶  Eleanor M.L. Scerri⁷  Mohamed Abdeljalil El Hajraoui⁸  Zenobia Jacobs⁹  Emily Y. Hallett^1,10 

[1] African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, Eastern Cape 6031, South Africa;Corresponding author;Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany;Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA;School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA;Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia;Department of Anthropology, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA;GIR PREHUSAL, Department of Prehistory, Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Salamanca, 37002 Salamanca, Spain;Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA;Pan-African Evolution Research Group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany;

关键词: Biological sciences;    Evolutionary biology;    Evolutionary processes;    Paleobiology;    Anthropology;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Summary: The emergence of Homo sapiens in Pleistocene Africa is associated with a profound reconfiguration of technology. Symbolic expression and personal ornamentation, new tool forms, and regional technological traditions are widely recognized as the earliest indicators of complex culture and cognition in humans. Here we describe a bone tool tradition from Contrebandiers Cave on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, dated between 120,000–90,000 years ago. The bone tools were produced for different activities, including likely leather and fur working, and were found in association with carnivore remains that were possibly skinned for fur. A cetacean tooth tip bears what is likely a combination of anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic modification and shows the use of a marine mammal tooth by early humans. The evidence from Contrebandiers Cave demonstrates that the pan-African emergence of complex culture included the use of multiple and diverse materials for specialized tool manufacture.

【 授权许可】

Unknown