HAIFA, ISRAEL According to a
Science Newsreport, Ron Shimelmitz of the University of Haifa suggests that an artifact unearthed in Israel’s Tabun Cave in the 1960s is a 350,000-year-old tool for grinding and rubbing hides or plants. Shimelmitz and his colleagues found microscopic signs of wear and polish on the stone tool and compared them to marks they made on nine similar stones collected near the cave site, which is located in the coastal mountains of northern Israel. The team members rubbed the recently collected stones on hard basalt rock, wood of medium hardness, and deer hide. They found that rubbing stones on deer hide produced the wavy surface and clusters of shallow grooves found on the ancient tool. It had been previously thought that such wide, flat stones were first used as rubbing and grinding tools some 200,000 years ago. To read about another recent discovery in Israel, go to Around the World: Israel.
The world’s oldest stone tool used for “delicate” abrading work was found close to Haifa, Israel, and dates back approximately 350,000 years. This is pretty significant as it dates back about 150,000 years earlier than when those types of tools were previously thought to have existed.
According to the University of Haifa research team, the dolomite cobble, which was discovered in the Tabun Cave at Mount Carmel, was believed to have been used to wear down materials (most probably soft materials), although the exact purpose is still unknown.
Researchers Ron Shimelmitz, Iris Groman-Yaroslavski, Mina Weinstein-Evron, and Danny Rosenberg, of the university’s Zinman Institute of Archaeology, explained this further, “While the tool is seemingly ‘simple,’ its early appearance and the fact that it has no parallel in such an early stage of human evolution give it world importance,” adding that the small rounded stone was “at such an early stage a very significant technology
Tool pre-dating modern humans identified in northern Israel clevelandjewishnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from clevelandjewishnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
At 350,000 Years: Diggers Find The Oldest Known Grinding Tool Used in Tabun Cave Published December 29th, 2020 - 07:37 GMT (Shutterstock)
Highlights
It is believed to be home to one of the longest periods of human occupation in the Levant.
Archaeologists believe they ve found the oldest known tool used for grinding or scraping, dating back some 350,000 years.
Found in the Tabun Cave in northern Israel, the implement is a cobble, a type of small rounded stone, and predates homo sapiens by at least 50,000 years.
Previously, such tools weren t thought to have been introduced until much later, approximately 200,000 years ago.
A reanalysis of a single stone tool found in Tabun Cave in northern Israel changes our entire thinking about part of our deep technological evolution https://t.co/21rDqHIyD6
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