A Worked Bone Assemblage from 120,000-90,000 Year Old Deposits at Contrebandiers Cave, Atlantic Coast, Morocco

Overview

Journal iScience

Publisher Cell Press

Date 2021 Oct 8

PMID 34622180

Citations 11

Authors

Emily Y Hallett

Curtis W Marean

Teresa E Steele

Esteban Alvarez-Fernandez

Zenobia Jacobs

Jacopo Niccolo Cerasoni

Vera Aldeias

Eleanor M L Scerri

Deborah I Olszewski

Mohamed Abdeljalil El Hajraoui

Harold L Dibble

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The emergence of in Pleistocene Africa is associated with a profound reconfiguration of technology. Symbolic expression and personal ornamentation, new tool forms, and regional technological traditions are widely recognized as the earliest indicators of complex culture and cognition in humans. Here we describe a bone tool tradition from Contrebandiers Cave on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, dated between 120,000-90,000 years ago. The bone tools were produced for different activities, including likely leather and fur working, and were found in association with carnivore remains that were possibly skinned for fur. A cetacean tooth tip bears what is likely a combination of anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic modification and shows the use of a marine mammal tooth by early humans. The evidence from Contrebandiers Cave demonstrates that the pan-African emergence of complex culture included the use of multiple and diverse materials for specialized tool manufacture.

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