Uncover a sophisticated axe made 1.4 million years ago by Homo erectus

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A team of paleoantrópologos japanese and ethiopians who worked in Konso Gardula, on the banks of the river Sagan, the south of Ethiopia have found u n axe made 1.4 million years ago with a large chunk of bone .

the Konso Gardula is a field which have already been found prior to other stone tools and fossil attributed to Homo erectus . These hominids made a kind of tools called achelenses (hand axes, complex that could employ, mainly, as the utensils of the butcher shop) that show a c onsiderable progression technology makes 1.7 million years.

The researchers, who have made known their discovery through the scientific journal “the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”, reported that the tool proceeds from the femur of a hippo , in place of stone as they have been found up to now, demonstrating that this technology was also applied to the bones. In this way, expands the repertoire of technological documented in the Homo, early Pleistocene african known until now and becomes your oldest sample .

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

“This axe of bone shows that in Konso, not only in the lithic technology, but also in the bone, the individuals of the Homo erectus had the skill enough to manufacture and use a sharp edge, durable “, have claimed to the specialists of the Tokyo University, Ethiopia, and Hong Kong, in the journal Sci-News.

The axe, measures 13 centimeters , presents some patterns of damage of edges, polishing and striations are consistent with the use in longitudinal movements, as in the cutting or sawing .

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Comments