39,600 years ago, Homo sapiens arrived in Europe during the last glaciation, the Würm glaciation, when the climate was very cold and most of the Iberian Peninsula was covered by a Siberian steppe where wooly mammoths lived. These modern humans arrived in this part of Europe wearing well-fitting skins, as suggested by the study published Wednesday. A bone object used for piercing and sewing leather was identified at a site near Barcelona.
The piece, about 10 centimeters long, is incomplete and believed to be part of the hip or jawbone of a large herbivore, perhaps a horse or bovine. The piece has several groups of perforations, but the most striking is the series of symmetrical marks on the other side, a dozen parallel and almost equidistant indentations that researchers have discovered were used to work the skin. The study, the results of which have just been published in Science Advances, argues that the tool was used over a fairly long period of time as it was made with at least six different stone tools.
Experts in bone archaeology at the University of Bordeaux have been instrumental in this discovery. Although it is difficult to determine the purpose of the tool, most experts believe it was used for working leather. Ornamental design that mimics natural or clothing features usually appears on substantially carved objects, which is not the case with the Canyars object. Experts also rule out that it is a symbolic object because the modifications must be clearly visible and organized to ensure that the meaning they are meant to convey can be understood by different members of the group.
Microscopic analysis and a series of experiments have allowed the discoverers to determine that the bone object was a tool for sewing skins. Although the collagen is not preserved to date it, the help of other remains and its location in the stratum in which it was found have allowed the researchers to determine that the tool was made about 39,600 years ago, in the middle of the Upper Paleolithic, which would fit with the beginnings of the Aurignacian culture, which brought Homo sapiens to most of Europe. Furthermore, the bone object is further evidence that Homo sapiens not only struggled against the hostile climate and fauna in Europe but also developed advanced technologies to survive.