In 1995, archaeologists working at a site in Boxgrove, near Chichester in West Sussex, unearthed a treasure trove of ancient materials, including handaxes, other stone tools, and butchered animal remains. Amongst these materials was a fragment of elephant bone that, until recently, had been stashed away in a museum’s collection and all but forgotten about.
A new study published today in Science Advances and undertaken by archaeologists from University College London and the Natural History Museum has re-described this fragment of elephant bone in detail and identified it as a prehistoric hammer, used by early humans to sharpen (or rather ‘knap’) stone tools.
These early humans weren’t Homo sapiens; instead, the researchers think they were likely early neanderthals or Homo heidelbergensis - two prehistoric species of humans known to have inhabited southern England in the last half-a-million years.
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The hammer, which measures 11cm long, 6cm wide, and 3cm thick, is roughly the same size as a bar of soap, and it bears many marks that suggest it was used intensively throughout its life.
Using 3D scanning methods to examine the flat striking surface of the hammer more closely, the researchers found that many of these marks were embedded with small fragments of flint.
As a material, bone is a lot softer than stone, making it better for precise tasks such as ‘knapping’. Being thicker than other animal bones, elephant bones were a great choice for such a tool and suggest its creators were highly skilled craftspersons who were not only capable of seeking out elephant bones, but also aware of their superior material properties.
“Our ancient ancestors were sophisticated in their use of tools. Collecting and shaping an elephant bone fragment and then using it on multiple occasions to shape and sharpen stone tools shows an advanced level of complex thinking and abstract thought. They were resourceful gatherers of available materials, and savvy about how best to use them,” said co-author Silvia Bello.
While the bone the hammer is made from is thick and dense enough to indicate it came from an elephant (or mammoth), it’s too incomplete to determine an exact species, or even where on the elephant’s body it has been taken from. It’s also unclear whether it has been made from an elephant bone scavenged from an already dead individual, or one that was hunted.
At 500,000 years old, the hammer is the oldest tool made from elephant bone ever found in Europe and nearly 500 years older than the next-oldest examples. Most of these other tools were found further south in warmer climates where, half-a-million-years ago, elephants were in greater abundance.
Still, from the findings presented by this latest study, it’s clear early humans living in southern England 500,000 years ago actively sought out elephants. The fact elephants were rare in this part of Europe suggests tools made from their bones would have been highly valued and, perhaps, motivation enough to track them down.
“This remarkable discovery showcases the ingenuity and resourcefulness of our ancient ancestors. They possessed, not only a deep knowledge of the local materials around them, but also a sophisticated understanding of how to craft highly refined stone tools. Elephant bone would have been a rare but highly useful resource, and it’s likely this was a tool of considerable value,” added lead author Simon Parfitt.
It wasn’t just in Europe that early humans were crafting tools from elephant bones. At Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, Africa, elephant bone tools have been found and dated as far back as 1.5 million years ago, to a time before neanderthals and Homo heidelbergensis even existed.
Top image: The Boxgrove archaeological site from the 1990s when the elephant bone tool was excavated. Credit: Boxgrove Project, UCL
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