That’s not to say the ancient humans living here were particularly ‘smart’, the researchers note. The explanation might simply be that they had a lot more elephant bones to work with than other groups, and less access to naturally occurring, large pieces of flint for making stone tools instead.
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Interesting write up. The above paragraph seems to parallel what I saw in this area, but much, much later. I’ve een artifacts ranging back to about 10,000 years ago, not the 400,000 they are talking about, but in this area the majority of human manufactured tools and projectile points are made from petrified wood, which seems to have been the predominant material for this area.
A rock the size of your fist is not common around here, and some of the projectile points found were made from flint and chert from other parts of the country. Most local rock is more likely to be smaller than a golf ball. One in particular I found was made from a form of white chert only available in Arkansas, 5 hours away or so. some smaller projectile points from 4,000 years ago or less are made from a type of red or yellow Jasper, (which may be the difference between heat treated or not) and a few from smaller chunks of local flint and chert, but tools make from rock instead of petrified wood are mostly from imported rock.
This was one of the purposes for the Poverty Point area in north Louisiana, where I lived a few years ago. Poverty Point itself was about 10 miles from where Ilived. It was the location of a yearly trading meet, evidence of tribal groups from locations as far away as Indiana and Missouri have been found.
They would meet there once a year and bring items from their area to trade. The locals at poverty point made clay heating balls they would trade for other items, others would bring whatever they had from home. Rocks, already formed into blanks, baskets, sandals, whatevere they made from home.
One mound about 3 miles from where I lived was made from dirt brought there from missouri, one basket full at a time, and dumped onto their ceremonial mound near Poverty Point. It’s about 20 feet high now, probably 30 feet across.
Once you locate their campsites, artifacts from all over the country can be found. Numerous campsites are all over the area.
But the locals here where I live now mostly used petrified wood, the most common material. I’ve seen arrow and spear heads, scrapers, knives, drills etc, all made from petrified wood. Even a mortar and pestle...(I can’t remember the Native American names for them) Interesting that this culture used elephant bone for the same reason, it was more easily available.