We often underestimate the extensive communication networks we have. Because even just a century ago, it would take weeks to receive a letter within the country, and there was no guarantee that the letter would reach its destination.
However, a new discovery made by researchers from all over the world has proven that communication and technology transfer is actually as old as humanity. And their deciphering of this communication mainly depends on a particular stone tool known as “backed artifacts,” or, less formally, the “stone Swiss army knife.”
With a length of up to five centimeters, this small stone tool is incredibly versatile. Studies have shown that our ancestors used this tool for almost everything, including working bone and leather, drilling and shaping wooden objects. Various examples of these tools have been found all over the world, in very different forms, from China to Europe and Australia.
But now, an interesting case of about 65,000 years ago has been discovered. All over South Africa, ridged works began to follow the same design. “During the Howiesons Poort [technological period of prehistory], enormous numbers of backed artifacts were produced in South Africa,” the study published in the journal Scientific Research states. Our morphometric analysis shows that Howiesons Poort-supported artifacts were made with a similar pattern over great distances and across many biomes.”
It is clear that the only way these vehicles could be so similar over such great distances was if early humans communicated with each other.
“While the stone tool wasn’t particularly difficult to make, it was difficult to attach the stone to the handle using glue and adhesives,” said Paloma de la Peña, Senior Research Fellow at the McDonald’s Archaeological Research Institute at Cambridge University and co-author of the study.
The discovery, by more than demonstrating the networking abilities of our ancient ancestors, is another indication of why humanity has been so successful globally. Australian Museum and University of Sydney archaeologist Amy Way , subject right “Humans have been moving out of Africa for hundreds of thousands of years, and we have evidence of early Homo sapiens in Greece and the Levant from about 200,000 years ago. “But these early exits were suppressed by the great eruption that took place about 60-70,000 years ago and includes the ancestors of all modern humans living outside of Africa today.”
In other words, the migration out of Africa and the spread of these ridged artifacts to the continent coincide at about the same time (we’re talking, of course, over a period of several thousand years). “This analysis shows for the first time that these social connections were present in South Africa just before the great migration,” Way says.
Thus, it turns out that in the face of dramatic climate change and incredible migration, it is our ability to cooperate that holds humanity together. This is important not only for understanding the past, but perhaps also for understanding the future.
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