Canadian-led researchers squeeze Stone Age protein from 250,000-year-old tools
VICTORIA — It’s supposed to be impossible to squeeze blood from a stone, but a Canadian-led team of archeologists has extracted rhino blood from a Stone Age hand axe that is dated at 250,000 years old, the oldest evidence of early human hunting activities.
The University of Victoria-led team of researchers has found protein residue remains of butchered horses, rhinos, cows and ducks on stone tools discovered at an archeological site near Azraq, Jordan.
Expedition leader April Nowell, a UVic paleoanthropologist, said Friday the protein discovery reveals early humans were capable of taking advantage of a wide variety of prey in a challenging environment hundreds of thousands of years ago.
“What makes this study significant is that our results are not only the oldest identified proteins in the world but they also provide direct evidence of exploitation of specific animals by those early hominins,” she said. “Often as archeologists we have bones and stone tools in association with each other, but what we have found with this protein residue is direct evidence … of what these early humans were butchering.”