• Collectors in the prehistoric world recy

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Mon Mar 7 21:30:46 2022
    Collectors in the prehistoric world recycled old stone tools to preserve
    the memory of their ancestors
    New study unravels recycling practices 500,000 years ago

    Date:
    March 7, 2022
    Source:
    Tel-Aviv University
    Summary:
    A new study asks what drove prehistoric humans to collect and
    recycle flint tools that had been made, used, and discarded by
    their predecessors. After examining flint tools from one layer at
    the 500,000- year-old prehistoric site of Revadim in the south of
    Israel's Coastal Plain, researchers propose a novel explanation:
    prehistoric humans, just like us, were collectors by nature and
    culture.



    FULL STORY ==========================================================================
    A first-of-its-kind study at Tel Aviv University asks what drove
    prehistoric humans to collect and recycle flint tools that had been made,
    used, and discarded by their predecessors. After examining flint tools
    from one layer at the 500,000-year-old prehistoric site of Revadim in
    the south of Israel's Coastal Plain, the researchers propose a novel explanation: prehistoric humans, just like us, were collectors by nature
    and culture. The study suggests that they had an emotional urge to collect
    old human-made artefacts, mostly as a means for preserving the memory of
    their ancestors and maintaining their connectedness with place and time.


    ==========================================================================
    The study was led by PhD student Bar Efrati and Prof. Ran Barkai of the
    Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures
    at TAU's Entin Faculty of Humanities, in collaboration with Dr. Flavia
    Venditti from the University of Tubingen in Germany and Prof. Stella
    Nunziante Cesaro from the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. The paper appeared in the journal Scientific Reports,published by Nature.

    Bar Efrati explains that stone tools with two lifecycles have been found
    at prehistoric sites all over the world, but the phenomenon has never been thoroughly investigated. In the current study the researchers focused
    on a specific layer at Revadim -- a large, open-air, multi-layered site
    in the south of Israel's Coastal Plain, dated to about 500,000 years
    ago. The rich findings at Revadim suggest that this was a popular spot
    in the prehistoric landscape, revisited over and over again by early
    humans drawn by an abundance of wildlife, including elephants. Moreover,
    the area is rich with good-quality flint, and most tools found at Revadim
    were in fact made of fresh flint.

    Bar Efrati: "The big question is: Why did they do it? Why did prehistoric humans collect and recycle actual tools originally produced, used,
    and discarded by their predecessors, many years earlier? Scarcity of
    raw materials was clearly not the reason at Revadim, where good-quality
    flint is easy to come by. Nor was the motivation merely functional, since
    the recycled tools were neither unusual in form nor uniquely suitable
    for any specific use." The key to identifying the recycled tools and understanding their history is the patina -- a chemical coating which
    forms on flint when it is exposed to the elements for a long period of
    time. Thus, a discarded flint tool that lay on the ground for decades
    or centuries accumulated an easily identifiable layer of patina, which
    is different in both color and texture from the scars of a second cycle
    of processing that exposed the original color and texture of flint.

    In the current study, 49 flint tools with two lifecycles were examined.

    Produced and used in their first lifecycle, these tools were abandoned,
    and years later, after accumulating a layer of patina, they were
    collected, reworked, and used again. The individuals who recycled each
    tool removed the patina, exposing fresh flint, and shaped a new active
    edge. Both edges, the old and the new, were examined by the researchers
    under two kinds of microscopes, and via various chemical analyses, in
    search of use-wear marks and/or organic residues. In the case of 28 tools, use-wear marks were found on the old and/or new edges, and in 13 tools,
    organic residues were detected, evidence of contact with animal bones
    or fat.

    Surprisingly, the tools had been used for very different purposes in
    their two lifecycles -- the older edges primarily for cutting, and
    the newer edges for scraping (processing soft materials like leather
    and bone). Another baffling discovery: in their second lifecycle the
    tools were reshaped in a very specific and minimal manner, preserving
    the original form of the tool, including its patina, and only slightly modifying the active edge.

    Prof. Ran Barkai: "Based on our findings, we propose that prehistoric
    humans collected and recycled old tools because they attached significance
    to items made by their predecessors. Imagine a prehistoric human walking through the landscape 500,000 years ago, when an old stone tool catches
    his eye. The tool means something to him -- it carries the memory of his ancestors or evokes a connection to a certain place. He picks it up and
    weighs it in his hands. The artifact pleases him, so he decides to take
    it 'home'. Understanding that daily use can preserve and even enhance
    the memory, he retouches the edge for his own use, but takes care not
    to alter the overall shape -- in honor of the first manufacturer. In a
    modern analogy, the prehistoric human may be likened to a young farmer
    still plowing his fields with his great-grandfather's rusty old tractor, replacing parts now and then, but preserving the good old machine as is, because it symbolizes his family's bond with the land. In fact, the more
    we study early humans, we learn to appreciate them, their intelligence,
    and their capabilities. Moreover, we discover that they were not so
    different from us.

    This study suggests that collectors and the urge to collect may be
    as old as humankind. Just like us, our early ancestors attached great importance to old artifacts, preserving them as significant memory objects
    -- a bond with older worlds and important places in the landscape." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Tel-Aviv_University. Note: Content
    may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Bar Efrati, Ran Barkai, Stella Nunziante Cesaro, Flavia Venditti.

    Function, life histories, and biographies of Lower
    Paleolithic patinated flint tools from Late Acheulian
    Revadim, Israel. Scientific Reports, 2022; 12 (1) DOI:
    10.1038/s41598-022-06823-2 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220307113131.htm

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