Apech Posted May 3, 2018 (edited) Quote Stone tools found in the Philippines predate the arrival of modern humans to the islands by roughly 600,000 years—but researchers aren’t sure who made them. The eye-popping artifacts, unveiled on Wednesday in Nature, were abandoned on a river floodplain on the island of Luzon beside the butchered carcass of a rhinoceros. The ancient toolmakers were clearly angling for a meal. Two of the rhino's limb bones are smashed in, as if someone was trying to harvest and eat the marrow inside. Cut marks left behind by stone blades crisscross the rhino's ribs and ankle, a clear sign that someone used tools to strip the carcass of meat. But the age of the remains makes them especially remarkable: The carved bones are most likely between 631,000 and 777,000 years old, with researchers' best estimate coming in around 709,000 years old. The research—partially funded by the National Geographic Society—pushes back occupation of the Philippines to before the known origin of our species, Homo sapiens. The next-earliest evidence of Philippine hominins comes from Luzon's Callao Cave, in the form of a 67,000-year-old foot bone. Quote https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/05/stone-tools-rhinoceros-luzon-philippines-ancient-hominins-science/ Someone butchered a rhinoceros in the Philippines hundreds of thousands of years before modern humans arrived—but who? Marblehead? was it you? Edited May 3, 2018 by Apech 6 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nungali Posted May 3, 2018 Curious, also many of the islands around there, throughout time, are separated by deep water that would have needed ocean crossing (not land bridge during low sea levels ) . This is a very early date ! A few possibilities; since archaeology and palaeontology are based on finds, there may still be a lot yet 'unfounded' . Early hominids made tools hunted and butchered. Humans been around longer than we thought . There is also evidence of early humans that died out , they were unsuccessful, no people remain but their tools do , the first settlement of the Southern Mediterranean is such a case ... maybe ingress from souther Africa via the NIle ? Or before the 'Green Sahara' phase. They appear to have disappeared . later settlement was via a 'middle eastern' / l Levant peoples . A similar thing also in Arabia. very ancient tools found that predate the (supposed) arrival of man there. Also the case there with horses - horse indications long before they thought horse riding evolved in the Pontic Steppe far to the east . 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marblehead Posted May 4, 2018 12 hours ago, Apech said: Someone butchered a rhinoceros in the Philippines hundreds of thousands of years before modern humans arrived—but who? Marblehead? was it you? It may well have been some of my ancestors but I never knew that they made it that far to the Southeast. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
