Jan 29, 2023 03:13 AM
https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7zx77/a...owing-find
INTRO: Scientists have discovered a trove of nearly 600 obsidian hand-axes that were crafted more than 1.2 million years ago in Ethiopia by an unknown group of hominins, the family consisting of modern humans and our many extinct relatives, reports a new study.
The discovery pushes the timeline of obsidian tool use back by an astonishing 500,000 years, and reveals that the hominins who lived in this part of Ethiopia, known as Melka Kunture, must have been considerably skilled crafters in order to work with this capricious material.
Obsidian is a volcanic glass that forms from rapidly cooled lava, an origin that gives this rock its typical dark color and brittle structure. As a fragile and sharp-edged glass, obsidian is a useful material for making tools and weapons, but those same qualities make it tricky to sculpt because it can so easily break and cause injuries.
Many human cultures have relied on obsidian for both aesthetic and functional items over the past several millennia. However, the use of this glass deeper in the Pleistocene era, a period that spans roughly 2,580,000 to 11,700 is less common, with notable exceptions such as obsidian hand-axes found in Kenya that date back some 700,000 years.
Now, scientists led by Margherita Mussi, an archaeologist at the University of Sapienza, have discovered what they call a “surge in obsidian exploitation more than 1.2 million years ago” by hominins living along Ethiopia’s Awash River, according to a new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Indeed, of the 578 hand-axes the researchers found at Melka Kunture, all but three were made of obsidian... (MORE - details)
INTRO: Scientists have discovered a trove of nearly 600 obsidian hand-axes that were crafted more than 1.2 million years ago in Ethiopia by an unknown group of hominins, the family consisting of modern humans and our many extinct relatives, reports a new study.
The discovery pushes the timeline of obsidian tool use back by an astonishing 500,000 years, and reveals that the hominins who lived in this part of Ethiopia, known as Melka Kunture, must have been considerably skilled crafters in order to work with this capricious material.
Obsidian is a volcanic glass that forms from rapidly cooled lava, an origin that gives this rock its typical dark color and brittle structure. As a fragile and sharp-edged glass, obsidian is a useful material for making tools and weapons, but those same qualities make it tricky to sculpt because it can so easily break and cause injuries.
Many human cultures have relied on obsidian for both aesthetic and functional items over the past several millennia. However, the use of this glass deeper in the Pleistocene era, a period that spans roughly 2,580,000 to 11,700 is less common, with notable exceptions such as obsidian hand-axes found in Kenya that date back some 700,000 years.
Now, scientists led by Margherita Mussi, an archaeologist at the University of Sapienza, have discovered what they call a “surge in obsidian exploitation more than 1.2 million years ago” by hominins living along Ethiopia’s Awash River, according to a new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Indeed, of the 578 hand-axes the researchers found at Melka Kunture, all but three were made of obsidian... (MORE - details)