The discovery of tools used to make clothes 120,000 years ago
Smugglers' Cave in Morocco Reveals Secrets of "Clothes of the Past"
The discovery may help answer questions about the origin of contemporary behavior in Homo sapiens.
AFP
An international team of researchers discovered bone tools that were used to make clothes 120,000 years ago, the oldest discovery of its kind ever, inside a cave near Rabat, as announced by a Moroccan archaeologist who participated in the research.
"This is a very important discovery, despite the discovery of the oldest bones in the world, but it is the first time that we have found tools of bones that were used to make clothes," archaeologist Abdul-Jalil al-Hajrawi told Agence France-Presse the day before yesterday.
A study published by the American magazine iScience last week stated that the tools, consisting of about 60 groups of bones, were discovered in a site known as the smugglers' cave near the Moroccan capital, "and they were deliberately reclaimed to perform specific tasks that included making pieces of leather and fur." .
This discovery may contribute to answering major questions about the origin of contemporary behavior in Homo sapiens, according to the Moroccan archaeologist.
The specialist at the National Institute of Archeology and Heritage in Morocco added that “clothing making is a behavior that has been permanently established since that era.
The tools discovered in the cave were used for a period of 30,000 years, which proves the emergence of collective memory.”
The study explained that "given the level of specialization of the tools discovered in the smugglers' cave, it is likely that older models will be found later."
Also, dwellings dug in the dirt to protect against natural phenomena were discovered in the cave, in addition to jewelry (engraved shells), which constitutes “a remarkable cultural development that is still in the process of study,” according to the Moroccan researcher.
Also, researchers from Morocco, the United States and France, about 4,000 kilometers from the smugglers’ cave, discovered about 30 shells inside a layer dating back between 142 and 150,000 years ago in the Bismoon Cave near the city of Essaouira (southwest), as announced by the Moroccan Ministry of Culture, in a statement. Last Wednesday, it relied on a study in this regard published by the American "Science Advances" magazine.
The statement pointed out that these discovered shells are the oldest jewelry used by humans that have been discovered until today.
Acheulean civilization
At the end of last July, an international team discovered in the suburb of Casablanca on the western coasts of Morocco, a site dating back 1.3 million years, which is the oldest tool-making from the Acheulean period in North Africa.
Until now, archaeologists believed that the Acheulean civilization, distinguished by the invention of two-sided tools during the Lower Paleolithic, arose 700,000 years ago in this part of North Africa.
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