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

  • Identification data

    Identifier: imarina:6246711
    Authors:
    Assaf, EllaCaricola, IsabellaGopher, AviRosell, JordiBlasco, RuthBar, OdedZilberman, EzraLemorini, CristinaBaena, JavierBarkai, RanCristiani, Emanuela
    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, Ella; Caricola, Isabella; Gopher, Avi; Rosell, Jordi; Blasco, Ruth; Bar, Oded; Zilberman, Ezra; Lemorini, Cristina; Baena, Javier; Barkai, Ran; Cristiani, Emanuela
    Department: Història i Història de l'Art
    URV's Author/s: Rosell Ardévol, Jordi
    Keywords: Use-wear Tools Olduvai gorge Middle pleistocene Micro-residues Israel Humans History, ancient Fossils Esr/u-series Dietary fats Diet, paleolithic Central hearth Caves Bone marrow Bone and bones Blind tests Bed-ii Archaeology Animals Amudian layers
    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: Zootecnia / recursos pesqueiros Sociology Sociología Serviço social Saúde coletiva Química Psychology Psicología Planejamento urbano e regional / demografia Odontología Nutrição Multidisciplinary sciences Multidisciplinary Medicine (miscellaneous) Medicina veterinaria Medicina iii Medicina ii Medicina i Materiais Matemática / probabilidade e estatística Linguística e literatura Letras / linguística Interdisciplinary research in the social sciences Interdisciplinar Human geography and urban studies History & philosophy of science Historia Geografía Geociências General medicine General biochemistry,genetics and molecular biology General agricultural and biological sciences Farmacia Environmental studies Ensino Engenharias iv Engenharias iii Engenharias ii Engenharias i Enfermagem Educação física Educação Economia Direito Demography Comunicação e informação Ciências sociais aplicadas i Ciências biológicas iii Ciências biológicas ii Ciências biológicas i Ciências ambientais Ciências agrárias i Ciência política e relações internacionais Ciência de alimentos Ciência da computação Biotecnología Biology Biodiversidade Biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (miscellaneous) Astronomia / física Arquitetura, urbanismo e design Archaeology Antropologia / arqueologia Anthropology Agricultural and biological sciences (miscellaneous) Administração, ciências contábeis e turismo Administração pública e de empresas, ciências contábeis e turismo
    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: 2025-01-28
    Paper version: info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
    Licence document URL: https://repositori.urv.cat/ca/proteccio-de-dades/
    Paper original source: Plos One. 15 (4): e0230972-
    APA: Assaf, Ella; Caricola, Isabella; Gopher, Avi; Rosell, Jordi; Blasco, Ruth; Bar, Oded; Zilberman, Ezra; Lemorini, Cristina; Baena, Javier; Barkai, Ran; (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
    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
    Use-wear
    Tools
    Olduvai gorge
    Middle pleistocene
    Micro-residues
    Israel
    Humans
    History, ancient
    Fossils
    Esr/u-series
    Dietary fats
    Diet, paleolithic
    Central hearth
    Caves
    Bone marrow
    Bone and bones
    Blind tests
    Bed-ii
    Archaeology
    Animals
    Amudian layers
    Zootecnia / recursos pesqueiros
    Sociology
    Sociología
    Serviço social
    Saúde coletiva
    Química
    Psychology
    Psicología
    Planejamento urbano e regional / demografia
    Odontología
    Nutrição
    Multidisciplinary sciences
    Multidisciplinary
    Medicine (miscellaneous)
    Medicina veterinaria
    Medicina iii
    Medicina ii
    Medicina i
    Materiais
    Matemática / probabilidade e estatística
    Linguística e literatura
    Letras / linguística
    Interdisciplinary research in the social sciences
    Interdisciplinar
    Human geography and urban studies
    History & philosophy of science
    Historia
    Geografía
    Geociências
    General medicine
    General biochemistry,genetics and molecular biology
    General agricultural and biological sciences
    Farmacia
    Environmental studies
    Ensino
    Engenharias iv
    Engenharias iii
    Engenharias ii
    Engenharias i
    Enfermagem
    Educação física
    Educação
    Economia
    Direito
    Demography
    Comunicação e informação
    Ciências sociais aplicadas i
    Ciências biológicas iii
    Ciências biológicas ii
    Ciências biológicas i
    Ciências ambientais
    Ciências agrárias i
    Ciência política e relações internacionais
    Ciência de alimentos
    Ciência da computação
    Biotecnología
    Biology
    Biodiversidade
    Biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (miscellaneous)
    Astronomia / física
    Arquitetura, urbanismo e design
    Archaeology
    Antropologia / arqueologia
    Anthropology
    Agricultural and biological sciences (miscellaneous)
    Administração,
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