Sara Watson
Archaeologists have just discovered a pattern among tool production techniques. Has the homo sapiens already shared knowledge among communities? Our ancestors were not as isolated as we thought.
A team of archaeologists has analyzed a set of tools found in the South African robberg caves that dating back to the ice age about 20,000 years ago. What they found made them intrigued.
In studying the fine details along the chipped edges of the blades and stones, the archaeologists realized that these tools were actually built with the same techniques as similar tools found in other African countries, such as Namibia and Lesoto.
“This is an important view of how people living in this region lived, hunted and reacted to their environment,” explains archaeologist Sara Watson.
“Instead of being even with water, as it is happening today, these caves would have been close to vast open plains with large hunting animals, such as the antelope,” says Watson. “People hunted these animals and, for that, developed new tools and weapons.”
“In many of these technologies, the reduction of the tool core is very specific and is Something that is taught and learned, And that’s where social information is, ”explains the researcher.“ If we see specific methods of nuclei reduction in various landscape locations, as an archaeologist, that tells me that these people shared ideas with each other. ”
The published this month in Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology It shows that there was therefore a sharing of knowledge among ancient humans.
“The same pattern of core reduction, the same desired product,” says Watson. “The standard is repeated times without account, which indicates that it is intentional and shared, and Not just a casual resemblance.”
“We have a very long and rich story as a species, and humans go back to a much more distant past than most people imagine,” he concludes. “People who lived at the last ice age were very similar to today’s people.”
