Archaeologists from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Israel) found that the ancient ancestors of humans specially made spheres out of stones. The results of the study were announced magazine Royal Society Open Science.
In 1959, a group of archaeologists discovered an ancient inhabited place in northern Israel. According to scientists, it was named Ubeidii because it belonged to Homo erectus (upright man). Human ancestors used it as a transit point during the transition from Africa to Eurasia 1.4 million years ago.
Experts found about 600 flint, basalt and limestone spheres in this area. For a long time, scientists could not understand why they were created. Some believe that the balls are waste products from the manufacture of stone tools, while others believe that the spheres were produced on purpose.
A new study has revealed that humans’ ancient ancestors deliberately created balls. The authors used 3D analysis of 150 scans of the finds; this allowed the scientists to reconstruct the sequence of mechanical impacts that gave the stone its ball shape.
“We arrived at an unusual result. Initially, round stones were deliberately formed into spherical shapes using a predesigned processing strategy. Such work required extraordinary skills and a clear vision of the end goal. So people understood which form they had to take,” explained the study’s authors.
According to experts, this discovery challenges existing ideas about the mental abilities of ancient people. Most likely Homo erectus had an idea of symmetry and tried to set it in stone, but the reason is unknown.
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