Stone Age humans were using whale bones to craft tools as far back as 20,000 years ago, according to a new study.
The discovery gives scientists a rare glimpse into how early coastal communities relied on whales for survival and helps uncover how these massive marine mammals once lived.
The research, published in Nature Communications, analysed 83 tools made from bone, recovered from sites near the Bay of Biscay in northern Spain and southern France, along with 90 additional bones from Santa Catalina Cave, also in the province of Biscay.
The tools were discovered at a number of prehistoric coastal sites, which are often hard to study because sea level rise and erosion can wash away key archaeological evidence.
Yet despite the challenges, researchers managed to extract vital information from the remains using radiocarbon dating, mass spectrometry and a technique called ZooMS, or Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry.
ZooMS allows scientists to identify animal species from tiny fragments of collagen in bone, even when the bones are damaged or shaped into tools, explains Krista McGrath, lead author of the paper.
"We managed to identify species such as sperm whales, fin whales, blue whales, all still present in the Bay of Biscay today, as well as gray whales, a species now mostly restricted to the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans,” adds McGrath.
Jean-Marc Pétillon, the paper's senior author, says the "study reveals that the bones came from at least five species of large whales, the oldest of which date to approximately 19,000–20,000 years ago. These represent some of the earliest known evidence of humans using whale remains as tools.”
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The study also revealed that ancient whales had slightly different feeding patterns compared to modern ones, suggesting that the marine environment and whale behaviour have shifted over time.
These findings not only expand our knowledge of how early humans used marine resources but also give new insight into past ecosystems and the history of whale populations, the authors conclude.
Main image: Excavations in 2022 in the Basque cave of Isturitz, France, where several dozen whale bone objects were discovered. Credit: Jean-Marc Pétillon
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