Prehistoric tools made of whale bones found in France
A large projectile point made of gray whale bone from the Duruthy rockshelter, dated between 18,000 and 17,500 years ago, is pictured in Landes, France. Photo: REUTERS
Artifacts found at archeological 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.
The tools, primarily hunting implements such as projectile points, were fashioned from the bones of at least five species of large whales, the researchers said.
Bones from sperm whales were the most abundant, followed by fin whales, gray whales, right or bowhead whales — two species indistinguishable with the analytical method used in the study — and blue whales.
With seafaring capabilities by humans not developing until thousands of years later, the Ice Age hunter-gatherers who made these implements would have been unable to actually hunt whales for their resources in the Bay of Biscay, a gulf of the Atlantic Ocean.
"These whales were likely opportunistically acquired from stranded animals or drifted carcasses, rather than actively hunted," said biomolecular archaeologist Krista McGrath of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, co-lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Communications. Reuters
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Prehistoric tools made of whale bones found in France
A large projectile point made of gray whale bone from the Duruthy rockshelter, dated between 18,000 and 17,500 years ago, is pictured in Landes, France. Photo: REUTERS Artifacts found at archeological 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. The tools, primarily hunting implements such as projectile points, were fashioned from the bones of at least five species of large whales, the researchers said. Bones from sperm whales were the most abundant, followed by fin whales, gray whales, right or bowhead whales — two species indistinguishable with the analytical method used in the study — and blue whales. With seafaring capabilities by humans not developing until thousands of years later, the Ice Age hunter-gatherers who made these implements would have been unable to actually hunt whales for their resources in the Bay of Biscay, a gulf of the Atlantic Ocean. "These whales were likely opportunistically acquired from stranded animals or drifted carcasses, rather than actively hunted," said biomolecular archaeologist Krista McGrath of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, co-lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Communications. Reuters
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