The human ancestor Homo erectus used freshwater mussel shells tools as far back as half a million years ago and even carved decorative engravings, new findings revealed.
The discovery provides new insight into how human behavior evolved in our earliest days, the Leiden University reported.
"Until this discovery, it was assumed that comparable engravings were only made by modern humans - Homo sapiens - in Africa, starting about 100,000 years ago," said lead author José Joordens, researcher at the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University.
A team of 21 researchers looked at hundreds of fossils from a Homo erectus site on the Indonesian island of Java, which were excavated at the end of the 19th century and held in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden's Dubois Collection.
The shells are engraved with geometric "zigzag" patterns that predate the weathering process that caused the shells to become fossilized. The study eliminated natural occurrences or animals as the inscribers, suggesting they were created by the ancient hominids. To make their findings the researchers used two dating methods the researchers used two dating methods, which revealed the shells were carved between 430,000 and 540,000 years ago.
"It's fantastic that this engraved shell has been discovered in a museum collection where it has been held for more than a hundred years. I can imagine people may be wondering whether this can be seen as a form of early art," said Wil Roebroeks, Professor of Palaeolithic Archaeology at Leiden University. "At the moment we have no clue about the meaning or purpose of this engraving."
The findings show Homo erectus had an expert handle on these freshwater mussels, and even drilled holes in the shells using a sharp object such as a shark's tooth at the exact point were the muscle holds the shell closed.
"The precision with which these early humans worked indicates great dexterity and detailed knowledge of [mollusk] anatomy," said Frank Wesselingh, a researcher and expert on fossil shells at Naturalis.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Nature.
