Articles producció científica> Història i Història de l'Art

Shaped stone balls were used for bone marrow extraction at Lower Paleolithic Qesem Cave, Israel

  • Identification data

    Identifier: imarina:6246711
    Authors:
    Assaf ECaricola IGopher ARosell JBlasco RBar OZilberman ELemorini CBaena JBarkai RCristiani E
    Abstract:
    © 2020 Assaf et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The presence of shaped stone balls at early Paleolithic sites has attracted scholarly attention since the pioneering work of the Leakeys in Olduvai, Tanzania. Despite the persistent presence of these items in the archaeological record over a period of two million years, their function is still debated. We present new results from Middle Pleistocene Qesem Cave on the use of these implements as percussion tools. Use-wear and abundant bone and fat residues found on ten shaped stone balls indicate crushing of fresh bones by thrusting percussion and provide direct evidence for the use of these items to access bone marrow of animal prey at this site. Two experiments conducted to investigate and verify functional aspects proved Qesem Cave shaped stone balls are efficient for bone processing and provide a comfortable grip and useful active areas for repeated use. Notably, the patina observed on the analyzed items precedes their use at the cave, indicating that they were collected by Qesem inhabitants, most probably from older Lower Paleolithic Acheulian sites. Thus, our results refer only to the final phases of the life of the items, and we cannot attest to their original function. As bone marrow played a central role in human nutrition in the Lower Paleolithic, and our experimental results show that the morphology and characteristics of shaped stone ball replicas are well-suited for the extraction of bone marrow, we suggest that these features might have been the reason for their collection and use at Qesem Cave. These result
  • Others:

    Author, as appears in the article.: Assaf E; Caricola I; Gopher A; Rosell J; Blasco R; Bar O; Zilberman E; Lemorini C; Baena J; Barkai R; Cristiani E
    Department: Història i Història de l'Art
    URV's Author/s: Rosell Ardévol, Jordi
    Keywords: Amudian layers Bed-ii Blind tests Central hearth Esr/u-series Micro-residues Middle pleistocene Olduvai gorge Tools Use-wear
    Abstract: © 2020 Assaf et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The presence of shaped stone balls at early Paleolithic sites has attracted scholarly attention since the pioneering work of the Leakeys in Olduvai, Tanzania. Despite the persistent presence of these items in the archaeological record over a period of two million years, their function is still debated. We present new results from Middle Pleistocene Qesem Cave on the use of these implements as percussion tools. Use-wear and abundant bone and fat residues found on ten shaped stone balls indicate crushing of fresh bones by thrusting percussion and provide direct evidence for the use of these items to access bone marrow of animal prey at this site. Two experiments conducted to investigate and verify functional aspects proved Qesem Cave shaped stone balls are efficient for bone processing and provide a comfortable grip and useful active areas for repeated use. Notably, the patina observed on the analyzed items precedes their use at the cave, indicating that they were collected by Qesem inhabitants, most probably from older Lower Paleolithic Acheulian sites. Thus, our results refer only to the final phases of the life of the items, and we cannot attest to their original function. As bone marrow played a central role in human nutrition in the Lower Paleolithic, and our experimental results show that the morphology and characteristics of shaped stone ball replicas are well-suited for the extraction of bone marrow, we suggest that these features might have been the reason for their collection and use at Qesem Cave. These results shed light on the function of shaped stone balls and are consistent with the significance of animal fat in the caloric intake of Middle Pleistocene humans as shown by the archeozoological evidence at Qesem Cave and possibly beyond.
    Thematic Areas: Administração pública e de empresas, ciências contábeis e turismo Administração, ciências contábeis e turismo Agricultural and biological sciences (miscellaneous) Anthropology Antropologia / arqueologia Archaeology Arquitetura, urbanismo e design Astronomia / física Biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (miscellaneous) Biodiversidade Biology Biotecnología Ciência da computação Ciência de alimentos Ciência política e relações internacionais Ciências agrárias i Ciências ambientais Ciências biológicas i Ciências biológicas ii Ciências biológicas iii Ciências sociais aplicadas i Comunicação e informação Demography Direito Economia Educação Educação física Enfermagem Engenharias i Engenharias ii Engenharias iii Engenharias iv Ensino Environmental studies Farmacia General agricultural and biological sciences General biochemistry,genetics and molecular biology General medicine Geociências Geografía Historia History & philosophy of science Human geography and urban studies Interdisciplinar Interdisciplinary research in the social sciences Letras / linguística Linguística e literatura Matemática / probabilidade e estatística Materiais Medicina i Medicina ii Medicina iii Medicina veterinaria Medicine (miscellaneous) Multidisciplinary Multidisciplinary sciences Nutrição Odontología Planejamento urbano e regional / demografia Psicología Psychology Química Saúde coletiva Serviço social Sociología Sociology Zootecnia / recursos pesqueiros
    licence for use: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/
    Author's mail: jordi.rosell@urv.cat
    Author identifier: 0000-0002-6758-6291
    Record's date: 2024-02-03
    Papper version: info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
    Link to the original source: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0230972
    Papper original source: Plos One. 15 (4): e0230972-
    APA: Assaf E; Caricola I; Gopher A; Rosell J; Blasco R; Bar O; Zilberman E; Lemorini C; Baena J; Barkai R; Cristiani E (2020). Shaped stone balls were used for bone marrow extraction at Lower Paleolithic Qesem Cave, Israel. Plos One, 15(4), e0230972-. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0230972
    Licence document URL: https://repositori.urv.cat/ca/proteccio-de-dades/
    Article's DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0230972
    Entity: Universitat Rovira i Virgili
    Journal publication year: 2020
    Publication Type: Journal Publications
  • Keywords:

    Agricultural and Biological Sciences (Miscellaneous),Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (Miscellaneous),Biology,Medicine (Miscellaneous),Multidisciplinary,Multidisciplinary Sciences
    Amudian layers
    Bed-ii
    Blind tests
    Central hearth
    Esr/u-series
    Micro-residues
    Middle pleistocene
    Olduvai gorge
    Tools
    Use-wear
    Administração pública e de empresas, ciências contábeis e turismo
    Administração, ciências contábeis e turismo
    Agricultural and biological sciences (miscellaneous)
    Anthropology
    Antropologia / arqueologia
    Archaeology
    Arquitetura, urbanismo e design
    Astronomia / física
    Biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (miscellaneous)
    Biodiversidade
    Biology
    Biotecnología
    Ciência da computação
    Ciência de alimentos
    Ciência política e relações internacionais
    Ciências agrárias i
    Ciências ambientais
    Ciências biológicas i
    Ciências biológicas ii
    Ciências biológicas iii
    Ciências sociais aplicadas i
    Comunicação e informação
    Demography
    Direito
    Economia
    Educação
    Educação física
    Enfermagem
    Engenharias i
    Engenharias ii
    Engenharias iii
    Engenharias iv
    Ensino
    Environmental studies
    Farmacia
    General agricultural and biological sciences
    General biochemistry,genetics and molecular biology
    General medicine
    Geociências
    Geografía
    Historia
    History & philosophy of science
    Human geography and urban studies
    Interdisciplinar
    Interdisciplinary research in the social sciences
    Letras / linguística
    Linguística e literatura
    Matemática / probabilidade e estatística
    Materiais
    Medicina i
    Medicina ii
    Medicina iii
    Medicina veterinaria
    Medicine (miscellaneous)
    Multidisciplinary
    Multidisciplinary sciences
    Nutrição
    Odontología
    Planejamento urbano e regional / demografia
    Psicología
    Psychology
    Química
    Saúde coletiva
    Serviço social
    Sociología
    Sociology
    Zootecnia / recursos pesqueiros
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