Many of the archaeological sites of the ancient hominines archaeologists often find unusual stones round shape. The age of some stones is more than 2 million years. A new study, which, citing the journal PLOS One reports ScienceAlert, helped figure out what our ancestors used these strange tools.
An international group of researchers conducted a thorough analysis of ten of the round stones found in the cave Kesem in Israel. In this Parking lot era of the lower Paleolithic the ancient people dwelt in the interval between 400 and 200 thousand years ago. The experts found evidence that round stones were used when extracting bone marrow from animal bones.
For a more thorough study, the researchers conducted a digital stereomicroscope and metallographic microscopy. Experiments have shown that the characteristics of the shape and topography of the stone balls are well-suited in order to break strong bones. According to experts, the bone marrow was an important part of the human diet in the lower Paleolithic, so the round stones was popular among hominines. The analysis also showed that the stones from the cave Kesem for a long time was in another place before the ancients found them and brought to his dwelling place. The results shed light on the function of round stones and confirm the importance of animal fats in the diet of middle-Pleistocene.
