Stone Age people used this 35,000-year-old woolly mammoth tusk tool to make rope, scientists say Smart News

Scientists say a 35,000-year-old woolly mammoth tusk discovered in 2015 was used by early humans as a rope-making tool. Using a replica of the artifact, a small team of researchers was able to create a rope made from cattail reeds.

Their rope-making experience and analysis was published Wednesday. scientific progressrefutes earlier ideas that ivory was a work of art or served other non-practical purposes.

“You can make ropes from it very easily, and the ropes are very strong,” said Nicholas Conard, an archaeologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany and a co-author of the study. new scientistMichael Le Page. “Of course, that doesn’t mean that’s the only possibility. But compared to saying it’s a symbol of power or some kind of work of art, I think the rope hypothesis is a pretty good hypothesis. ”

In 2015, archaeologists discovered 15 pieces of mammoth ivory in the Holle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany. These fragments were estimated to be 35,000 to 40,000 years old, based on similar radiocarbon dates found earlier nearby. When assembled, it formed a 20.4-centimeter (8-inch) woolly mammoth tusk, also known as a “hohle fels baton,” with four holes surrounded by grooves carved into the sides.

Some researchers previously believed that the strange ivory batons were ceremonial, used as noisemakers, scepters, staffs, or works of art. “What is ritualism? [archaeologists] said Wei Chu, an archaeologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands who was not involved in the study. scienceI’m Andrew Currie.

Others believed that this instrument was used for straightening wooden shafts or processing leather. science news” reported Bruce Bower. However, after a detailed analysis of his four holes in the baton, the study authors came to a different conclusion. Evidence of plant and soil residue and minute wear indicates that the object was probably actually a tool used to make rope or twine.

“The combination of looking at it, seeing that the grooves were intentionally made, and finding those fibers led us to think it was a tool,” said co-author of Liège, Belgium. says university archaeologist Wiel Lotz. science.

Strong ropes were useful to early humans and could have been used to make tools, provide shelter, transport objects, tame dogs, and start fires. However, Stone Age ropes themselves were often made of plant material, which would disintegrate over time. Early fossilized rope impressions in clay and depictions of ropes in prehistoric art are essentially the only evidence that has survived into modern times, the scientists wrote.

By 2020, Conard, Lotz, and other scientists were confident in the Rope hypothesis. guardianRobin McKee reported on the situation. But it wasn’t until recently that they tested it.

Using a variety of materials, including wood, bronze, animal bone, and African warthog ivory, the researchers created a replica of Hohle Fels’s baton and then attempted to make a rope out of it.

They tested materials that would have been available in the area around 30,000 years ago, including deer sinew, flax, hemp, linden, willow, and nettle. But the research team found that cattail reeds were the most effective. It was easiest to thread these fibers through adjacent holes, maintain tension, and pull the strands into a single rope.

With a little practice, a team of four or five people could create a strong, flexible rope 5 meters (16.4 feet) long in just 10 minutes. Still, the researchers acknowledge that their feat is not conclusive evidence that ivory was only used to make rope.

“But this is the first time,” Conard says. science news“We have documented artifacts that appear to have been used to make the ropes and demonstrated how they work.”