US EditionOldest Whale Bone Tools Discovered
- Archaeologist Jean-Marc Pétillon and his team discovered the oldest whale bone tools, dated between 20,000 and 15,000 years ago, near Spain's Bay of Biscay and inland sites up to 300 kilometers away.
- This discovery builds on previously excavated Stone Age artifacts and reflects that whale bones came from stranded animals, as active whaling emerged thousands of years later.
- The team analyzed 83 whale bone implements from 26 sites and 90 additional bone fragments from a coastal cave using protein sequencing and radiocarbon dating, identifying at least five whale species including sperm and blue whales.
- Many radiocarbon dates range from 17,500 to 16,000 years ago, and Pétillon said these bones are 'very rich in fat,' which added nutritional value to Stone Age diets and influenced human use of marine resources.
- The findings imply that Late Paleolithic humans regularly used stranded whales for toolmaking and diet, suggesting coastal resources were important despite rising seas destroying some evidence.
100 Articles
100 Articles
Oldest Known Tools Made From Whale Bone Date Back 20,000 Years - Archaeology Magazine
This projectile made from the bone of a gray whale was discovered in Landes, France, and dates to between 17,500 and 18,000 years ago BAY OF BISCAY, SPAIN––Whales, as the largest mammals on Earth, have long been an important resource for human societies, whether it be for food, oil, or other materials. According to a report by Popular Science, hunter-gatherers in present-day Spain and France have been crafting essential tools from whale bones fo…
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Taipei TimesTools made of whale bones reveal inventiveness of prehistoric people
Artefacts found at archaeological sites in France and Spain along the Bay of Biscay shoreline show that humans have been crafting tools from whale bones since more than 20,000 years ago, illustrating anew the resourcefulness of prehistoric people.
Late Paleolithic whale bone tools reveal human and whale ecology in the Bay of Biscay
Reconstructing how prehistoric humans used the products obtained from large cetaceans is challenging, but key to understand the history of early human coastal adaptations. Here we report the multiproxy analysis (ZooMS, radiocarbon, stable isotopes) of worked objects made of whale bone, and unworked whale bone fragments, found at Upper Paleolithic sites (Magdalenian) around the Bay of Biscay. Taxonomic identification using ZooMS reveals at least …
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