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About 900 years ago, stone tech 000 was released in Spain. Diego Lombao, an anthropologist at the University of Santiago de Compostela, and his colleagues found the earliest known European example of advanced methods of using stone tools. Discovered at El Barranco de la Boella in northeastern Spain, the technological leap preceded the evolutionary split between modern humans and Neanderthals, so these advances in stone tools were likely made and used by our common ancestors and/or others today extinct species of people.
"The technological behavior observed at El Barranco de la Boella demonstrates significant technological advances and anticipatory behavior," Lombao and team write in their paper.
The analysis showed that the way the tools were made followed a common sequence, meaning that craftsmen used a common template to achieve consistent results. These ancient people also produced larger tools than those seen before and adapted them for specific purposes.
Together, these traits indicate a "sophisticated level of foresight and planning."
The earliest known stone tools, classified as Oldowan or Mode 1, date from nearly 3 million years ago. Made by ancient hominids throughout Africa, these early tools were the result of one stone being hammered into another. The resulting shards had sharp edges that could be sharpened with further blows.
What Lombao and his colleagues discovered is the earliest evidence in Europe of the more sophisticated Mode 2 techniques that produce Acheulean axes. They are created from Mode 1 processes by further refining using other materials such as bone and wood to help refine the blades. The resulting tools were also most likely symmetrical.
The ancient people who lived at El Barranco de la Boelha in the early Middle Pleistocene created a complex process that involved transporting a range of local materials to make their axes and kirs at various stages of their production. They chose specific materials for different purposes, such as flint (flint) for their smaller tools and slate for their larger tools.
"Barranque de la Boella is a unique testament to hominid technological change in Europe at a time when tools were not only utilitarian, but also involved sophisticated planning and more efficient use of resources," says Lombao.
But there are hints that this new technology may not have originated in El Barranc de la Boella. Some methods appeared in the region suddenly, suggesting that new methods appeared with migration rather than with local development.
Moreover, these tools bear a strong resemblance to other sites such as Ubaydiyah in the Levant.
"We hypothesize that El Barranco de la Boella may represent an early dispersal of the Acheulean from Africa around 1,4 million years ago," the researchers write
These tools are considered so important because they provide early evidence of the cognitive ability to use a mental model that includes prediction and planning.
"This site shows us that technological innovation was not linear or absolutely abrupt, but the result of many waves of population dispersal and the gradual arrival of new technological behaviors from Africa into Europe," explains Lombao.
About 300 years later, humanity made another technological leap in the use of tools, starting the cumulative culture that we add to today. This study was published in Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology.
