Overview
- The dense cortical fragment, about 11 centimeters long, was excavated in the 1990s at Boxgrove in West Sussex but was only recently reinterpreted.
- 3D scans and electron microscopy revealed distinctive impact notches with embedded flint micro-residues consistent with a soft-hammer retoucher used to sharpen handaxes.
- Researchers describe it as the earliest elephant-bone implement recorded in Europe and the first identified within the Boxgrove collection.
- The reanalysis was conducted by University College London and the Natural History Museum and published January 21 in Science Advances.
- The team says the tool reflects advanced knapping skills and planning by Middle Pleistocene hominins, possibly Homo heidelbergensis or early Neanderthals, and notes the lack of other elephant remains at the site, suggesting the bone may have been transported.