Stone tools found in prehistoric habitats that shed light on the dark ancient times of humanity seem to have two life cycles: they are first worked and used, then discarded before they can be used again. A new study puts forward an interesting hypothesis as to what might be the reason for this.
According to the research published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports, the recycled use of these prehistoric tools means that they function as “memory objects” that help remind places, events and people, and represent the connection with past and previous generations. he sees. While it’s a pretty interesting claim, the research provides a lot of evidence to support this hypothesis.
Tools may be of sentimental value
Belongs to a layer of sediment estimated to be around 500,000 years old from the famous Revadim site south of the Israel Coastal Plain Examining the chemical coating that precipitated on 49 flint tools, archaeologists determined that these objects had two different lifetimes.
After microscopic analysis, it was understood that the tools, which were found to have two active edges, one old and one new, were used for the second time, and their second use was for more effortless tasks such as scraping soft materials such as leather and animal meat, rather than cutting and chopping. As a result, researchers began to question why prehistoric humans might have reintroduced tools made, used, and then discarded by their predecessors.
Archaeologist Bar Efrati from Tel Aviv University in Israel stated that the reason was not a clear shortage of raw materials in a time when it was easy to find solid quality pebbles and in the region. it was also just functional because recycled tools were neither unusual in shape nor uniquely suited for any particular use.”
Moreover, it seems that when these tools were put to use for the second time, a lot of changes were made to them.
Based on these clues, the researchers concluded that the tools had an emotional value for the people of that time; collected these instruments because of the memories they evoke and their special connection to the past. He began to think that he might.
Human ancestral tools were a reminder of the past
On this subject, Tel Aviv University archaeologist Ran Barkai said, “500,000 years ago, an ancient stone tool “Imagine a prehistoric person walking through the landscape when it catches your eye,” he says. “The vehicle means something to him – it carries a memory of his ancestors or evokes a connection to a particular place.” uses expressions. Accordingly, the researchers suggest that the prehistoric people who found the ancestral tool may have taken the tool home, changing only one edge and using it in this way in honor of the first person who created the tool, rather than changing the general shape of the tool.
Of course, it’s also possible for these tools to be reused as it takes less effort than creating new ones from scratch; however, the fact that in addition to the 49 reused objects analyzed here, there are also many newly created tools is what made the researchers doubtful. In addition, renovating an old vehicle was not so easy than creating a new one from scratch.
In other words, primitive humans who lived about 500,000 years ago were not all that different from us in the way they collected memories. Functional memories that worked were also reminders of things that happened in the past.
On the subject, Barkai says, “In a modern analogy, prehistoric man may still be likened to a young farmer who plows his fields with his great-grandfather’s rusty old tractor, occasionally changing parts, but keeping the good old machine intact, for this is the family of his family. It symbolizes the bond with the land”.
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