Fortean Times

PAUL SIEVEKING

unearths the world’s oldest personal ornaments and some very early dental work

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OLDEST JEWELLERY

A piece of bone jewellery more than 46,000 years old has been discovered in a rock shelter in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Microscopi­c analysis revealed that the pointed kangaroo leg bone bears traces of red ochre on its ends and scrape marks made by stone tools. The ornament was probably worn through the nasal septum. “I’ve met Indigenous Australian­s who remember their granddads wearing nose bones for special occasions,” said Michelle Langley of Australian National University. Before the nose bone was found, the oldest bone tools and ornaments in Australia were thought to be only about 20,000 years old. archaeolog­y.org, 18 Nov 2016.

Almost as old as the nose bone is a remarkable bracelet from the Denisova cave in Siberia; seven years of analysis have concluded that it was made around

40,000 years ago. It was found next to the bones of extinct animals, such as the woolly mammoth, and other artefacts dating back 125,000 years. The cave is named after the Denisovan people — a mysterious species of hominins from the Homo genus, geneticall­y different from both Homo sapiens and Neandertha­ls. They were unique in many ways, having branched away from other humanoid species about a million years ago [ FT353:16].

The skill involved in making the bracelet shows a level of technique at least 30,000 years ahead of its time; until now, it was believed that such skills had only evolved in about 10,000 BC. Writing in the Russian magazine Science First Hand, Dr Anatoly Derevyanko, head of the Museum of History and Culture of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East in the city of Novosibirs­k, stated that when the archæologi­sts studied the diameter variations of the bracelet, they found that the rotational speed of the drill must have been quite high, with minimal fluctuatio­ns. “The ancient master,” he said, “was skilled in techniques previously considered not characteri­stic for the Palæolithi­c era, such as easel speed drilling, boring tool type rasp, grinding and polishing with a leather and skins of varying degrees of tanning.”

Probably held in place by a leather strap, the bracelet itself was made from a type of stone called chlorite, which could only have been imported from some 200km (125 miles) away. The bracelet was very delicate and was probably worn at special occasions by some important person, such as a Denisovan princess. “The bracelet is stunning,” said Dr Derevyanko. “In bright sunlight it reflects the sun’s rays, at night by the fire it casts a deep shade of green.” digitaljou­rnal.com, 8 May 2017.

 ??  ?? ABOVE LEFT: The 46,000-year-old nose bone found in Kimberley. ABOVE RIGHT: The “stunning” 40,000-year-old Denisova cave bracelet.
ABOVE LEFT: The 46,000-year-old nose bone found in Kimberley. ABOVE RIGHT: The “stunning” 40,000-year-old Denisova cave bracelet.

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