In before the usual moron puts "piltdownman" into the keywords.
Posted on 04/17/2020 2:41:57 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Stone artifacts painstakingly shaped into spheres were part of the daily lives of early humans for more than two million years. They have been unearthed by archaeologists in East Africa, humanity's ancestral home, and they litter prehistoric sites across Eurasia from the Middle East to China and India. Yet experts have been puzzled by their function since the early days of research into our evolutionary history.
Now, an international team of archaeologists led by Tel Aviv University archaeologist researcher Ella Assaf, has produced evidence that these enigmatic artifacts were used for a very specific purpose: breaking the bones of large animals to extract the nutritious marrow inside.
The study, published last week in the journal PLOS ONE, highlights how an elegant technological solution that allowed hominins to increase their calorie intake endured for hundreds of thousands of years and continued to be used even as our ancestors developed new techniques and created more complex societies.
The researchers analyzed shaped stone balls, also called spheroids, found in Qesem Cave, a prehistoric site just east of the modern city of Tel Aviv that was inhabited from 400,000 to 200,000 years ago. The discovery of around 30 of these artifacts in this particular cave was a puzzle wrapped in an enigma for archaeologists. Not only did the function of the spheres remain obscure, but their presence there was considered anachronistic, because these artifacts are usually found at much older sites.
Qesem Cave was uncovered during road works in the year 2000... a treasure trove of hundreds of thousands of flint tools and animal bones as well as 13 hominin teeth, belonging to the as-yet-unidentified group that lived at the site.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
In before the usual moron puts "piltdownman" into the keywords.
People used to play catch with those, I’ve told my kids. They’ve got it easy, these days.
Those guys in Costa Rica must have been hunting and eating some very very very large animals, eh?
Indiana Jones was almost hunted down by one of those.
Soooo ..... did these come in pairs or what?
They used them top play croquet, but they were also good for breaking bones for snacking while playing.
Eventually they were made out of bronze, and showed up in one of those Ray Harryhausen movies.
BTW, pine nuts are often found in eastern Mediterranean food -- those come from wooden soldiers.
I guess that’s nice.
I hope next they’ll feel free to explain this found all over the World:
Donald Trump in prehistory *PING*
2 million years?
People used to play catch with those, I’ve told my kids. They’ve got it easy, these days.
********
The original, old school, lawn darts.
https://www.sciencephoto.com/search?q=Prehistoric%20spear-thrower&media_type=images
No, the large ones were rolled very fast to catch and immobilize prisoners who ran away
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During the day we played the game of horseshoes. That game must have been invented before fun, ‘cause it’s not. There’s only two ways for that game to end, either "This sucks let’s do something else," or "Owww, you hit me with the horseshoe." -- Dave Attell
Thanks for the post.
Og is busy, chipping away at a very large bolder.
“hey, Og, whatcha doing?” says Gorg.
“Gonna make this really really round.” said Og.
“Why?” asked Gorg.
“Gonna mess with their minds!” exclaimed Og.
“Who’s minds?” asked Gorg.
Og makes waving motion with his hand, the common signal for ‘further’. The long time away people.” explained Og.
“Oh, when you get it really round, you should put a scary face on it!” suggested Gorg.
“Sweet! I’m so gonna do that!” said Og.
Replaced by piltdowndad.
“Hold my mammoth and watch this” -his calling card
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