This new discovery is meant to deconstruct all our ideas of prehistoric humans being ruthless savages who did not know how to use or create delicate tools. It shows that humans who were living in China in late Pleistocene period knew how to use bones in order to carve out stone. This discovery is important since it shows the first instance in which humans started to use bones as carving tools in China. Other artifacts similar to these ones have been found in other parts of the globe as well, letting researchers now compare the time frames and reach their own conclusions.
More details about the tools
Luc Doyon and his team are responsible for these findings. They excavated the tools between 2005 and 2015 in China’s Henan province at the Lingjing site. They found them at a depth of 10 meters. This can be explained since the site used to be a water spring for animals, where prehistoric humans would have decided to kill and butcher their prey.
Three types of soft bone tools
The 115,000-year-old bone tools were of three types. The first type was used intensively on one part and it was made from weather limb bone fragments. The second type was used to sharpen stone tools and it was made out of limb bone flakes. Last but not least, the third type showed impact scars made from percussing lithic blanks. They looked to come from a type of axis deer.
Doyon wanted to say that since the artifacts that they uncovered from the site were in excellent shape, further analysis can be done on them. He stated that he is going to take a closer look at these tools during his postdoctoral research in order to find out as much as possible about their uses, who used them and for how long they were used.
