Key points
- Tools reveal inventiveness of prehistoric people
- The artefacts were mostly used for hunting
- Tools were made from bones of at least five whale species
ISLAMABAD: Researchers have said that 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 for more than 20,000 years.
This highlights 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 according to Reuters.
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.
Opportunistically acquired
“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.
“The majority of the bones were identified from offshore, deep-water species – such as sperm whale and fin whale – which would have been very difficult to hunt for these prehistoric groups. And there is no evidence from this time period that they had the level of technology that active hunting would have required, like seafaring boats,” McGrath said.
Southwest Europe was much colder during the Upper Palaeolithic period, and the Atlantic Ocean was 120 metres (400 feet) lower than its current level.
Rise in sea levels
As the seas rose over the millennia, they destroyed or buried much of the proof that these hunter-gatherers interacted with the marine world, French prehistoric archaeologist Jean-Marc Petillon told AFP.
This led to a “biased” vision that they only hunted inland beasts such as reindeer, bison and horses, the lead author of a new study in Nature Communications said.
“Fortunately for us, people at the time transported a number of marine products inland,” he added.
Perched on a cliff, these humans would likely have been able to see blue, sperm, bowhead and other whales relatively near the shore, looking for food.
Rich in fat
Among their discoveries, the researchers found more than 60 fragments of whale ribs or vertebrae. These huge bones were carried up to five kilometres (three miles) to the top of a steep cliff, possibly to extract their oil.
“These bones are very rich in fat,” Petillon explained.
Most of the bone tools were parts of weapons, such as the tips of spears.
But it is “extremely unlikely” these ancient humans were able to hunt whales, the study said, adding that it was more likely that the huge animals had simply washed up on the beach.
Some of the bones were collected more than a century ago but were misidentified. The researchers used carbon-dating, as well as spectrometry analysis to determine what species the bones were from.
There was a boom in whale bones between 17,500 and 16,000 BC, when tools have been found as far away as Germany.
“Stopped quite abruptly”
“Then it stopped quite abruptly” for reasons that are not clear, Petillon said.
The people of the time did not run out of bones, nor did they lose the bone-working techniques.
“It could be a choice… like a fashion that lasts a millennium or two and then, at some point, stops,” Petillon said.
