This projectile made from the bone of a gray whale was discovered in Landes, France, and dates to between 17,500 and 18,000 years agoAlexandre Lefebvre
Posted on 06/05/2025 6:27:44 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Whales, as the largest mammals on Earth, have long been an important resource for human societies, whether it be for food, oil, or other materials. According to a report by Popular Science, hunter-gatherers in present-day Spain and France have been crafting essential tools from whale bones for much longer than previously thought. A new study analyzed 83 bone tools found at sites along the Bay of Biscay and 90 additional bones from the Santa Catalina cave in Spain. The investigation relied on mass spectrometry and radiocarbon dating to determine that humans living in the region have been making whale-bone tools, mostly projectile points, for at least 20,000 years, the earliest known evidence of this behavior. The material was sourced from five different species of whales––sperm, fin, blue, gray, and either bowhead or right. The archaeologists do not believe that Paleolithic people had the capabilities to actively seek out these mammoth creatures on the open water, but instead periodically harvested the carcasses of dead or stranded whales that had washed up along the seashore. Read the original scholarly article in the journal Nature Communications. To read more about Paleolithic people and whales, go to "Whale Barnacle BBQ."
(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...
This projectile made from the bone of a gray whale was discovered in Landes, France, and dates to between 17,500 and 18,000 years agoAlexandre Lefebvre
And Craftsman still stands by their Original Whale Bone tools. If your Original Whale Bone tools ever fail because of defects or workmanship, just bring it by any of our many Pleistocene Home Centers for a free replacement.
:^)
Well, I was born in the sign of water
And it′s there that I feel my best
The albatross and the whales
They are my brothers
You can’t make tools out of your brother, in 49 states.
[singing] whale meat again, don’t know how, don’t know when...
Why do they assume the Whales were beach finds? See the polish on that “Projectile”? Looks more to me like it was used as a Marlin Spike for Cordage and Netting to sail maybe. Maybe they were not all beach finds... It is not unreasonable to think they could float.
I agree. They lived on islands this long ago, and they didn’t walk there.
Yeah, 20k is fairly recent... Australia was populated around 50k ago. And wasn’t Malta populated around that time also?
Sorry, Malta around 20k also? Not 50k.
We may have to rethink the Nantucket sleigh ride?
I just gotta say I heard that song “ cool change “ this morning.
Probably would sell for big bucks on eBay.
And here I was thinking of renaming the Nantucket sleighride to the “Landes, France Sleighride,” and you come up with Mountain and a song I have not heard one note of since 1972! Thanks again! You’re full of surprises!
:^)
Especially if you hook onto a Blue Whale.
Whether sperm, fin, blue, gray, and either bowhead or right, it really depends on the size of the sleigh.
That object in the photo was used by a orchestra leader.
And a one and a two....
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