Latest news with #mammoth
BBC News
08-08-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Neanderthal tools, mammoths and new species at Cotswolds dig
A palaeontology dig - believed to be the biggest in the country, with more than 200 volunteers - has uncovered mammoth skulls, a 7ft (about 2.1m) tusk, evidence of Neanderthals and 160 million-year-old site at Cerney Wick in the Cotswolds is famous for the discovery of mammoth remains, with a David Attenborough documentary previously on the is the last time the team can investigate the area - which belongs to a quarry company - before it has to become a species to science are believed to have been found in fossils, as well as potential ice age wolves, rhino and lion bones. The site - which would once have been a river - has ice age remains from about 214,000 years ago but also fossils from about 160 million years the site has yielded yet more mammoths, archaeologist Kieran Mason has been the one looking at the human side of it - namely, the flint tools explained that before the site was excavated, it had been questionable whether Neanderthals were living in the area at the time, but he said: "It's clear evidence of Neanderthal. Modern human flint knapping is very different to Neanderthal techniques." "The fact we're getting these artefacts in the same layer that we're finding these bones that have been carbon dated is telling us there were people around, we just need to find a skeleton next." Bones of other types of elephant aside from mammoth have been found bones, such as those of big ice age horses, show the gnaw marks of hyenas. Sally and Neville Hollingworth are the people who kicked if all off. They first noticed the significance of the area about eight years ago, when they spotted a mammoth bone sticking out of the ground when the owners, Hills Quarry Products, had just begun to dig a then, the company has had teams back a few times to gather finds."We have bison, rhino, the giant horse, a possible wolf vertebrae, evidence of hyena," said Ms is a lot more than just digging on site - bones and fossils have to be cleaned and preserved at the conservation tent, where the larger things that had to be carefully lifted, like the 7ft tusk and skull, are also covered in plaster to keep them safe. One hundred and sixty million years ago, the Cotswolds would have been underwater. The area of the dig site examining fossils is full of ammonites, but to the trained or enthusiast's eye, there is a lot more in the Richard Forrest is an expert in Jurassic marine reptiles and told the BBC the site had been "incredible" and they had been able to expand their knowledge of the area hugely. That includes a possible 12 new species of invertebrate the team may have found as they comb through the finds. The sea monsters Mr Forrest researches are somewhat more fierce than the ammonites - they have also found a baby would have been about 2m (about 6.6ft) long just as a described it as a "snake threaded through a turtle. They effectively flew underwater, with two sets of flippers. No animal ever has hit that formula."They had very long necks too - the rock has parts of the bones sticking out, but Mr Forrest will need to do careful work to get it out."I use what's called an air pen - like a miniature drill. They work at a minute level. I'll do a lot of this under a microscope." The dig has been a good opportunity for students and volunteers too - Mr Hollingworth explained that about 20 universities had had people involved, including internationally."We've been really lucky that we've a great big group of very enthusiastic volunteers and researchers," he added - the numbers are what have made the dig so huge. Volunteers have also come in from all backgrounds, a few being geologists. Eric Downey is one of them - he is now office-based in his usual work, but jumped at the chance to "get his hands dirty"."This is the cream of the cream. This is one of the best places in the UK to come and dig. Everyone here is a volunteer. It just shows the passion," he said."No-one has touched this thing since it was deposited thousand or millions of years ago. You are the first person to see this in modern times."Many volunteers have been camping beside the dig in the area nicknamed Mammothville for the three-week dig. Mr and Ms Hollingworth, so passionate they have their own high-vis jackets with "Mammoth King" and "Mammoth Queen" printed, explained the site would soon become a silt pond and returned back to nature."Everything here will be locked away back into it's very own time capsule," said Mr them, as the people who kicked it all off, there is more to it than finds."This has been an incredible journey. This site has held so many fabulous memories. It's not just about the dig here. It's passing on that legacy for the future," added Ms Hollingworth.
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The Independent
26-06-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Archaeologists discover what could be world's oldest boomerang in Europe
A mammoth tusk artefact discovered in a Polish cave could be Europe's earliest example of a boomerang and even the oldest tool of its kind in the world, archaeologists said. The tusk was found along with what seemed like a human little finger or toe bone fossil at the Obłazowa cave in Poland, and it could be nearly 40,000 years old, according to a study published in the journal PLoS One. The previously oldest-known wooden boomerang came from the Wyrie Swamp in South Australia. It was dated to about 10,000 years ago, researchers, including from Jagiellonian University in Poland, said. One of Europe's earliest wooden throwing sticks was discovered at Schöningen in northern Germany and dated back about 300,000 years. In southeastern Australia, prehistoric Aboriginal people employed several kinds of such curved sticks for hunting birds, fish and small mammals. Several types of 'non-returning boomerangs' have been found in central Australia as well. These were used for various tasks like 'butchering animals, digging wells or cooking pits, scraping hot ashes from cooking carcasses, retouching stone weapons, and even producing musical sounds'. This shows the significance of boomerangs as versatile tools across diverse cultural and economic contexts. While most ancient boomerangs found so far, mostly in Australia, are typically made of wood, the new find made of ivory highlights the resourcefulness of our early Homo sapiens ancestors. Researchers found it to resemble 'Queensland type of Australian boomerangs' with experiments hinting it could fly as a 'non-returning boomerang'. Markings on the boomerang provide cultural context critical for understanding the emergence and variability of symbolic behaviors among early Homo sapiens groups in Europe. The discovery of the boomerang along with artefacts like a pendant also underlines 'an emerging regional artistic identity' 40,000 years ago. 'This parallels the distinct regional traditions observed in Europe such as the ivory figurines and flutes of the Swabian Jura,' researchers said. Archaeologists suspect the human digit fossil discovered along with the boomerang in the Obłazowa cave may be indicative of a shamanistic ritual. 'This interpretation draws parallels with rock art evidence of portrayed human hands with missing digits found in the Iberian Peninsula and France,' they said. The findings offer insights into early human technological innovation, highlighting the creative solutions societies developed to suit their needs across time. 'The findings not only deepen our understanding of Homo sapiens ' adaptive strategies but highlight the nuanced interplay of technology, symbolism, and environmental interaction during the earliest phases of human dispersals in Central Europe,' the study concluded.
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
World's oldest boomerang doesn't actually come back
The world's oldest boomerang is older than previously thought, casting new light on the ingenuity of humans living at the time. The tool, which was found in a cave in Poland in 1985, is now thought to be 40,000 years old. Archaeologists say it was fashioned from a mammoth's tusk with an astonishing level of skill. Researchers worked out from its shape that it would have flown when thrown, but would not have come back to the thrower. It was probably used in hunting, though it might have had cultural or artistic value, perhaps being used in some kind of ritual. The mammoth ivory boomerang was unearthed in Oblazowa Cave in southern Poland. It was originally thought to be about 30,000 years old. But new, more reliable radiocarbon dating of human and animal bones found at the site puts the age at between 39,000 and 42,000 years old. "It's the oldest boomerang in the world, and the only one in the world made of this shape and this long to be found in Poland," said Dr Sahra Talamo of the University of Bologna, Italy. It gives a "remarkable insight" into human behaviour, she said, particularly how Homo sapiens living as long as 42,000 years ago could shape "such a perfect object" with the knowledge it could be used to hunt animals. The boomerang is exceptionally well preserved, with score marks suggesting it had been polished and carved for use by a right-handed individual. Boomerangs are generally associated with Aboriginal culture in Australia. However, rare finds in the historical record outside Australia suggest they were used across different continents. The oldest known boomerang from Australia dates to about 10,500 years ago, made from wood. But the oldest images of boomerangs in Australia are rock art paintings 20,000 years old, according to National Museum Australia. A wooden boomerang dating back 7,000 years has been found in Jutland, a peninsula between Denmark and Germany, while fragments of a 2,000-year-old oak boomerang – which does come back – has been found in The Netherlands. The research by a team of scientists from Poland, Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland and the UK is published in the journal PLOS One.
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Stone Age boomerang is oldest in Europe — and possibly the world
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. An unusual mammoth tusk boomerang discovered in a cave in Poland is 40,000 years old — making it Europe's first example of this complex tool and possibly the oldest boomerang in the world, a new study finds. "The ivory object has all the features of boomerangs used by Aborigines in Queensland today," study co-author Paweł Valde-Nowak, an archaeologist at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, told Live Science in an email. "Its arched shape, flat-convex cross-section and dimensions match the Queensland boomerangs that do not return to the thrower," he said. The new study, published Wednesday (June 25) in the journal PLOS One, shows that curved throwing tools were invented in Europe far earlier than expected. The crescent-shaped artifact — which is about 28 inches (72 centimeters) long — was found in Obłazowa Cave in southern Poland 40 years ago along with human bones, pendants made from fox fangs, and stone blade tools, all covered with red ocher. Valde-Nowak and colleagues published their original findings in the journal Nature in 1987, suggesting the cave was used off and on by Neanderthals and early humans during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic periods (300,000 to 12,000 years ago). The Upper Paleolithic (50,000 to 12,000 years ago) is a key period in human history, as humans invented new forms of tools, cave art and personal decoration. And at Obłazowa Cave, Valde-Nowak saw a clear difference between the ocher-covered finds and earlier artifacts at the same site. "In my opinion, this is absolutely clear evidence of behaviors unknown to us, practices of early Homo sapiens, which contrast sharply with everything we found in the deeper cultural layers in Obłazowa, layers left by Neanderthals," Valde-Nowak said. Related: This man was killed by brutal boomerang blow 800 years ago To better understand the chronology of the Obłazowa Cave, in 1996 the researchers performed a carbon-14 analysis on organic remains discovered in the cave, including the ivory boomerang. However, at 18,000 years old, the boomerang was "unexpectedly young," raising concerns that the results had been skewed by contamination from adhesives or conservation material, the researchers wrote in the new study. Evidence of classic Aboriginal boomerangs and throwing sticks dates back at least 20,000 years, according to the National Museum of Australia. These boomerangs are multi-use tools, often used for hunting, fighting or digging. But people around the world have fashioned throwing sticks, including one very early example from northern Germany dating back 300,000 years. In the new analysis of finds from Obłazowa Cave, the researchers undertook DNA and radiocarbon analyses of a human finger bone from the boomerang layer and determined that the person was a modern human who lived at least 31,000 years ago. The researchers also analyzed a dozen animal bones, but not the boomerang itself, "to avoid further damage to this highly significant artifact," they wrote in the study. RELATED STORIES —5 non-returning Aboriginal boomerangs discovered in dried-up riverbed —Ancient Indigenous weapons from Australia can deliver 'devastating blows,' 1st-ever biomechanics study of its kind reveals —12,000-year-old Aboriginal sticks may be evidence of the oldest known culturally transmitted ritual in the world A cluster of animal bones found in the same layer as the boomerang all dated to around 41,500 years ago. Given this series of radiocarbon dates and the depths of the bones within the layer, the researchers created a statistical model for the date of the boomerang, finding that it was definitely made more than 35,000 years ago and that it was most likely carved between 42,365 and 39,355 years ago. "Our analysis on the boomerang found at the Obłazowa site has yielded groundbreaking insights into its age," the researchers wrote, positioning the boomerang "as potentially one of the oldest specimens in Europe, and possibly globally, thereby shedding light on both technical skills and cognitive advancements of Homo sapiens in crafting these complex tools."
BBC News
25-06-2025
- Science
- BBC News
World's oldest boomerang older than thought, but not Australian
The world's oldest boomerang is older than previously thought, casting new light on the ingenuity of humans living at the tool, which was found in a cave in Poland in 1985, is now thought to be 40,000 years say it was fashioned from a mammoth's tusk with an astonishing level of worked out from its shape that it would have flown when thrown, but would not have come back to the was probably used in hunting, though it might have had cultural or artistic value, perhaps being used in some kind of ritual. The mammoth ivory boomerang was unearthed in Oblazowa Cave in southern Poland. It was originally thought to be about 30,000 years old. But new, more reliable radiocarbon dating of human and animal bones found at the site puts the age at between 39,000 and 42,000 years old."It's the oldest boomerang in the world, and the only one in the world made of this shape and this long to be found in Poland," said Dr Sahra Talamo of the University of Bologna, gives a "remarkable insight" into human behaviour, she said, particularly how Homo sapiens living as long as 42,000 years ago could shape "such a perfect object" with the knowledge it could be used to hunt boomerang is exceptionally well preserved, with score marks suggesting it had been polished and carved for use by a right-handed individual. Boomerangs are generally associated with Aboriginal culture in rare finds in the historical record outside Australia suggest they were used across different oldest known boomerang from Australia dates to about 10,500 years ago, made from wood. But the oldest images of boomerangs in Australia are rock art paintings 20,000 years old, according to National Museum Australia. A wooden boomerang dating back 7,000 years has been found in Jutland, a peninsula between Denmark and Germany, while fragments of a 2,000-year-old oak boomerang – which does come back – has been found in The research by a team of scientists from Poland, Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland and the UK is published in the journal PLOS One.
