The oldest bone-based clothing-making tools were discovered at Morocco’s Contrebandiers (Smugglers) Cave.
Archaeologists in Morocco have discovered 120,000-year-old bone clothesmaking tools, the oldest ever discovered, according to one of the experts.
According to the Moroccan archaeologist Abdeljalil El Hajraoui, “It’s a major discovery because while older bone tools have been found elsewhere, it’s the first time we have identified bone tools (this old) that were used to make clothing.”
In Contrebandiers (Smugglers) Cave, less than 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the North African country’s capital, an international team unearthed more than 60 implements.
In a research published in the journal iScience, the team claimed that they had been, “intentionally shaped for specific tasks that included leather and fur working.”
According to El Hajraoui, a researcher at the National Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, the discovery might help address concerns about the origins of contemporary human behavior (INSAP).
He told the media that “Sewing is a behavior that has lasted” from prehistory.
He added, “Tools like those discovered in the cave were used for 30,000 years, which proves the emergence of collective memory.”
As per the article of iScience, “given the level of specialization of the bone tool material culture at Contrebandiers Cave, it is likely that earlier examples will be found.”
The crew also uncovered residential areas excavated into the earth or constructed within the cave, as well as perforated seashells that were probably used as decorations.
El Hajraoui remarked, “This was a cultural evolution that still needs study.”
Morocco has been the site of a number of significant archaeological finds, most recently on Wednesday when the country’s culture ministry announced that researchers had discovered a collection of about 30 shaped marine snail shells dating back as much as 150,000 years in a cave near Essaouira, about 400 kilometers southwest of Rabat.
It said they were “the oldest ornaments ever discovered,” in a statement.
That came after archaeologists announced in July that they had discovered North Africa’s oldest Stone Age hand-ax production site, which dates back 1.3 million years.
According to experts on the team, the discovery pushed back the start date of the Acheulian stone tool industry linked with a crucial human progenitor, Homo erectus, by hundreds of thousands of years in North Africa.
When five 300,000-year-old fossils were discovered in Jebel Irhoud in Morocco in 2017, evolutionary science was flipped upside down when they were named Homo sapiens.
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