The rare mammoth fang boomerang discovered in a Polish cave is 40,000 years old. New research finds Europe’s first example of this complex tool and perhaps the oldest boomerang in the world.
“The Ivory Object has all the features of the boomerang used by Aboriginals in Queensland today,” co-author Paweł Valde-Nowak, an archaeologist at Jagielonian University in Krakow, Poland, told Live Science in an email. “Its arched shape, flat convex surface and dimensions match the Queensland boomerang that doesn’t return to the thrower,” he said.
A new study published on Wednesday (June 25) in Journal Plos One shows that the curved throwing tool was invented in Europe much earlier than expected.
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The crescent-shaped artifact, approximately 28 inches (72 cm) long, was discovered 40 years ago in a cave in Obwazwa in southern Poland, with a pendant made from human bones, fox tusks, and stone blade tools covered in all red orchers. Valde-Nowak and colleagues published the original findings in the Nature Journal Nature in 1987.
The Upper Paleolithic Age (50,000-12,000 years ago) is a key period in human history, as humans invented new forms of tools, cave art and personal decoration. And in the Owwazwa Caves, Barde Nowak saw a clear difference between the ochre-covered discoveries of the same site and previous artifacts.
“In my opinion, this is absolutely clear evidence of behavior that is unknown to us, and early Homo sapiens practices contrast to everything we found in the deeper cultural strata of Obwazwa,” Valde Nowak said.
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In 1996, to better understand the chronology of the Oowazwa cave, researchers conducted carbon 14 analysis on organic sites discovered in the cave, including ivory boomerangs. However, 18,000 years ago, the boomerang was “unexpectedly young,” raising concerns that the results were distorted by contamination from adhesives and preservation materials, the researchers wrote in a new study.
According to the Australian National Museum, evidence of classic Aboriginal boomerangs and slow sticks dates back at least 20,000 years. These boomerangs are multipurpose tools that are often used for hunting, combat and excavation. But people all over the world are throwing sticks, including very early examples of North Germany, 300,000 years ago.
In a new analysis of the discoveries from the Owazwa Cave, researchers conducted DNA and radiocarbon analysis of human phalanxes from the boomerang layer, determining that they were modern humans who lived at least 31,000 years ago. The researchers also analyzed the bones of 12 animals, not the boomerang itself, but rather “to avoid further damage to this very important artifact.”
All animal bone herds found in the same layer as the boomerang were about 41,500 years ago. Given the dates of this series of radiocarbons and the depth of bones within the layers, the researchers have created a statistical model of the dates of the boomerangs.
“The analysis of boomerangs found at the Obwazwa site has provided groundbreaking insights into the era,” the researchers write, potentially positioning the boomerangs as one of Europe’s oldest specimens, thereby shedding light on both the technical skills and cognitive advances of the Homo Sapiens, who created these complex tools.
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