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Tag: prehistoric
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Prehistoric ivory ‘baton’ puzzled experts for years. A new study might have answers
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Years ago, archaeologists found a 35,000-year-old ivory artifact in a cave in Germany. Now, a study identified it as tool for weaving thicker ropes.
Photo from H. Jensen and University of Tübingen via Conard and Rots (2024)
Sometimes archaeologists dig up easily recognizable objects, like plates or bowls or coins. Other times, they uncover much more unusual and ambiguous finds.
Years ago, archaeologists in Germany unearthed one such puzzling artifact. Now, researchers think they’ve solved the mystery.
Archaeologists found the mysterious artifact while excavating Hohle Fels Cave in 2015, according to a study published Jan. 31 in the journal Science Advances. The prehistoric item was made from a mammoth’s tusk and broken into about 15 fragments.
Pieced back together, the fragments formed “a well-preserved and nearly complete perforated baton, with four holes containing precisely carved spiral grooves,” researchers said. Photos show this roughly 8-inch-long ivory “baton.”
The “baton” was made by the Aurignacian culture at least 35,000 years old and was still sharp, the study said.
Archaeologists also found several similar batons decades ago, but the purpose of these carved sticks remained poorly understood.
“Many interpretations have viewed these finds as symbols of power, ritual objects that are sometimes associated with burials or artworks of various kinds,” the study said.
But researchers had a different idea.
“We suspected that the holes with spiral grooves were made to have something fed through them,” the study said, “which led us to hypothesize that the artifact may have served to align fibers to make rope or twine.”
Several close-up views of the ivory artifact (A), the spiral hole carvings (D to K) and plant matter found on the tool (B and C). Photos from H. Jensen and University of Tübingen; D. Cnuts and University of Liège; and V. Rots and University of Liège via Conard and Rots (2024) To test their idea, researchers tried two approaches. First, they studied the residue left on the baton and found traces of “plant fibers.”
Next, researchers built a replica baton and tried using it to make rope, the study said.
After trial and error, researchers discovered that the replica baton “works very, very well for making rope,” the study’s lead co-author Nicholas Conard told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “You can make about 5 meters (16 feet) of rope in about 10 minutes after you get used to using the system.”
The replica tool worked best by feeding “bundles of cattail leaves through the holes” then pulling the baton along, the study said. “Behind the tool, the strands combine automatically into a rope as a result of their twisting tension.”
Based on these tests, researchers identified the “baton” as a rope-making tool specifically used for “making thicker, stronger rope consisting of two to four strands.”
Experts generally believe that prehistoric cultures used rope and twine, but archaeological evidence of this is “rare,” the study said.
The rope-making “baton” found at Hohle Fels Cave offers one way that the Aurignacian culture manufactured such an essential material, researchers said.
Hohle Fels Cave is in southern Germany and about 340 miles southwest of Berlin.
The research team included Conard and Veerle Rots.
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Arizona's 225 Million-Year-Old Petrified Tree Trunk
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225-million-year-old petrified tree trunk in Arizona 😳Arizona’s 225 Million-Year-Old Petrified…
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Giant 200,000-year-old stone hand ax discovered in desert—”Amazing”
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Archaeologists have discovered a giant hand ax that is thought to be more than 200,000 years old.
An international team of research researchers uncovered the prehistoric stone artifact during an archaeological survey conducted in a desert landscape known as the Qurh Plain in northwestern Saudi Arabia.
“This hand axe is one of the most important finds from our ongoing survey of the Qurh Plain. This amazing stone tool is more than a half a meter [around 20 inches] long and is the largest example of a series of stone tools discovered on the site,” project director Ömer Aksoy, with TEOS Heritage, an archaeological consultancy firm based in Turkey, said in a press release this week.
“An ongoing search for comparisons from across the world has not come up with a hand axe of equal size. As such, this may well be one of the largest hand axes ever discovered,” Aksoy said.
The prehistoric hand ax at the location where it was found in the Qurh Plain, northwestern Saudi Arabia. The stone artifact is thought to be more than 200,000 years old.
The Royal Commission for AlUla
The Qurh Plain is located to the south of AlUla, an ancient oasis city featuring mud-brick and stone houses, which was founded in the 6th century B.C.
The area surrounding AlUla is a region of outstanding natural and cultural significance in Saudi Arabia, containing important archaeological remains and sites. Aside from the city of AlUla itself, the region is also home to Saudi Arabia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, Hegra. Video of the discovery can be seen here.
Hegra is an ancient city spanning around 52 hectares, much of which dates back to the 1st century A.D. The site contains nearly 100 well-preserved tombs with elaborate facades cut into the outcrops of sandstone.
The city was once the southernmost settlement of the Nabatean Kingdom, whose capital city was Petra—a famous archaeological site in modern-day Jordan that is also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Nabateans were an ancient people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern Levant. They traded incense, spices and other goods, amassing significant wealth and influence, with Petra establishing itself as a major regional hub.
A distinct Nabatean kingdom emerged from the mid-3rd century B.C., of which Petra became the capital. The kingdom became a client state of the Roman Empire in the first century B.C. and in A.D. 106, the territory was annexed, losing its independence.
Despite being renowned for its Nabatean history, the AlUla region also displays evidence of human occupation stretching back much further—around 200,000 years ago, during the middle of the Paleolithic period. Among this evidence is the stone hand ax recently uncovered by archaeologists in the Qurh Plain.
Researchers examining the stone hand ax. The tool measures around 20 inches in length, 4 inches wide and 2 inches thick.
The Royal Commission for AlUla
The stone tool, which measures around 20 inches in length, 4 inches wide and 2 inches thick, is made of fine-grained basalt. The evidence indicates that it had been worked on both sides to produce a robust tool with usable cutting or chopping edges. At this stage, it is not clear exactly what the tool was used for, the researchers said.
The survey being conducted in the Qurh Plain is still ongoing, and the artifact is one of more than a dozen similar, albeit somewhat smaller, Paleolithic hand axes that have been uncovered.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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There Are Fish Fossils in the Himalayas, but How?
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How did they get there? 🤔There Are Fish Fossils in the Himalayas, but How?
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Hallowed Ground: Selkirk Auctioneers to Sell Picture Cave in Missouri
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Described as “the most important rock art site in North America,” the two-cave system boasts massive panels of over 290 prehistoric glyphs.
Press Release
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updated: Sep 1, 2021
ST. LOUIS, September 1, 2021 (Newswire.com)
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In a remote area of rural eastern Missouri, some 50 miles from Saint Louis, where prairies begin to entwine with the Ozark plateau, a mystical plat of land conceals a well-known subterranean world known simply as Picture Cave. On Sept. 14, 2021, Selkirk Auctioneers & Appraisers of St. Louis, Missouri will offer this invaluable piece of history on behalf of its private owners, three generations of a local Missouri family. The caves’ breathtaking iconography rests on land with a natural spring, rolling hills, and wonderful views that only accentuate the magnitude of one of America’s greatest archaeological finds. All 43 encompassing acres of real estate are included in the auction of Picture Cave, which is estimated to sell for $1,000,000-$3,000,000 USD.The current owners have owned and primarily used the land for hunting since 1953. It is of utmost importance to them that any new owners will continuously protect and preserve the caves as they have for decades. Since the discovery of the paintings, it has been determined by scholars that Picture Cave houses the greatest assemblage of American Indian polychrome paintings ever found in America, and the two-cave system, which had once been an extremely important ritual site for early Mississippian culture, is still vital for the ecosystem as home to one of the densest populations of the endangered Indiana gray bat.
What sets Picture Cave apart from others is that the dark zone is festooned with the most comprehensive collection of pictographs with significance comparable to that of major ancient cities, Cahokia and Chaco Canyon. Scholarly research regarding the meaning of the paintings has concluded that the images were created from approximately 900-1100 CE. The documentation is richly captured in the illustrated book, Picture Cave: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Mississippian Cosmos by the University of Texas Press (2015).
Several field experts, archeologists, Native American tribe members, and artists comprised the Picture Cave Interdisciplinary Project to accomplish a wonderful resource guide to understanding the Cave. These experts include Patty Jo Watson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, and Dr. Jan Simek from University of Tennessee, who is continually researching Picture Cave including the geochemical analyses of prehistoric pigment, AMS radio-carbon dating, and spatial order of iconography. Since the research began in 1990, several selfless individuals, Osage members, the landowners, as well as institutional grants and foundational funding, have made it possible to link documented facts with artistic interpretation.
For more information on Picture Cave and the September 14th auction, visit selkirkauctions.com, or call 314.696.9041 to speak with Selkirk executive director, Bryan Laughlin, or auctioneer & realtor, Amelia Jeffers. Picture Cave is offered subject to prior sale. Prospective Bidders may submit a pre-auction offer with contracts to be brokered by Dielmann Sotheby’s International Realty, St. Louis.
Source: Selkirk Auctioneers & Appraisers
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