Edited by Paola Villa, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, and accepted by Editorial Board Member Richard G. Klein December 29, 2017 (received for review September 12, 2017)
Wood is a widely available and versatile material, which has admittedly played a fundamental role in all human history. Wood, however, is most vulnerable to decomposition. Hence, its use is very rarely documented during prehistory. The present study yields new insights into the cognitive abilities of the early Neanderthals in wooden tool production and pyrotechnology. The early Neanderthals from the late Middle Pleistocene site of Poggetti Vecchi (central Italy) were able to choose the appropriate timber and to process it with fire to produce tools. The artifacts recall the so-called “digging sticks,” multipurpose tools used by all hunter-gatherer societies.
Excavations for the construction of thermal pools at Poggetti Vecchi (Grosseto, Tuscany, central Italy) exposed a series of wooden tools in an open-air stratified site referable to late Middle Pleistocene. The wooden artifacts were uncovered, together with stone tools and fossil bones, largely belonging to the straight-tusked elephant Paleoloxodon antiquus. The site is radiometrically dated to around 171,000 y B.P., and hence correlated with the early marine isotope stage 6 [Benvenuti M, et al. (2017) Quat Res 88:327–344]. The sticks, all fragmentary, are made from boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) and were over 1 m long, rounded at one end and pointed at the other. They have been partially charred, possibly to lessen the labor of scraping boxwood, using a technique so far not documented at the time. The wooden artifacts have the size and features of multipurpose tools known as “digging sticks,” which are quite commonly used by foragers. This discovery from Poggetti Vecchi provides evidence of the processing and use of wood by early Neanderthals, showing their ability to use fire in tool making from very tough wood.
Author contributions: B.A. and A.R. designed research; B.A. and A.R. performed research; N.A., F.C., and G.G. analyzed data; B.A., A.R., G.G., S.G., N.M., and F.S. wrote the paper; B.A. coordinated the research, studied the wooden tools, and performed the experimental study; A.R. studied the wooden tools and performed the experimental study; N.A. performed 3D digital acquisition of wooden tools; F.C. coordinated the geographic information system operations; S.G. and F.S. performed the experimental study; and G.G. and N.M. studied the characterization of the wood artifacts.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. P.V. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.
See Commentary on page 1959.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1716068115/-/DCSupplemental.
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