A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A PREHISTORIC HUMAN
Le quotidien de nos ancêtres préhistoriques
Les résultats d'une fouille archéologique en Angleterre ont révélé précisément en quoi pouvait consister une journée dans la vie d'un groupe d'êtres humains il y a un demi million d’années. Organisés et méthodiques, nos ancêtres sont bien loin de ressembler aux rustres qui peuplent notre imagination...
Archaeologists have reconstructed a day in the life of a community of prehistoric people who lived on England's south coast half a million years ago. Using complex forensic analysis of thousands of pieces of evidence, they have succeeded in piecing together what the 30 to 40 members of that community were doing over a roughly 6-8 hour period. The site itself - near Boxgrove in West Sussex - detailed evidence of a Stone Age feast – and the story of its preparation and aftermath.
2. Feasting was obviously central to human survival. The nature of the site strongly suggests that the humans may well have decided to go there specifically to kill and butcher a large animal and nourish themselves on it. Animals, especially herds of wild horses, would have been attracted to the area.
A WELL-PREPARED GROUP
3. The archaeological evidence also suggests that the humans came to the site fully prepared. They seem to have brought with them at least some previously made tools that would have been required to butcher their prey. As soon as the horse had been killed, the small human community began to butcher and eat it. That process would have taken many hours and involved everybody in the group, almost certainly including children. A detailed analysis of the material at the site strongly suggests that they took away substantial quantities of meat, the skin, the leg tendons and the largest bone in each of the animals four feet.
4. The feast would have happened around half a million years ago, a time that many scholars believe to be the moment when human cognitive evolution began to speed up. Some academics have even suggested that it is the period during which language first begins to develop.
5. The people whose lives have been recorded were extremely well-built and very strong. At another nearby site, research has been carried out on a human's lower left leg bone. The dimensions and nature of that bone has led scientists to conclude that it's original 'owner' was almost six-foot tall and weighed in at around 90 kilos. Built like a rugby player, that individual's lower leg bone was extremely well developed – almost certainly at least partly through very frequent intense use. Without doubt, he (or possibly she) and the rest of the community at Boxgrove would have needed an ability to run very fast for short distances - to hunt game, perhaps to escape from human enemies and definitely to escape from animal predators.