The first improved stone tools are found in Tarragona
back more than 750,000 years, first improved stone tools on our continent; in particular in plot in the Boella Gorge, in La Canona (Tarragona). These are the findings of a study by the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeocology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA) in the journal Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology.
This study shows that they were homininsa subtribe of great apes inhabiting the territory of Boella, which developed great tools such as axes and pickaxes made from locally sourced materials. They also developed methods of cutting the stone and sharpening it until it had a triangular shape called a phyphase. Hominids used these tools to cut, scrape and drill into other materials to survive.
“Migration flows have existed for a million years”confirms the researcher Palmyra Saladiresearcher at the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution and co-director of the Barranco de la Boella site, in RNE morningwith Josep Cuny. Through the gorge, he said, they discovered a “dispersal of people from Africa” previously unknown, hinting at an exchange of cultures that were carried from one place to another.
Additionally, the advanced stone tools discovered had “universal and varied uses” and were used to extract meat from large animals such as mammoths or hippos, which weighed tons.
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Technological changes in hominins
According to the study, the identified technological behavior represents a characteristic advance compared to the technologies that existed in Europe at the time. This is due, in particular, to selection and preparation of raw materials with differentiated management of their resources; For example, flint was used to make smaller tools, and slate for larger ones.
The hominins cut the stone until it formed a triangular shape called a phyphase. Europe Press
The investigation explains that “it was determined that the first stages of the manufacturing process of these large tools may have occurred outside the excavated sites and that they were systematically transported to the sites where they were needed.” Diego Lombao, lead author of the study, notes that “Boella Gorge – a unique evidence technological changes of the hominins of Europe at a time when tools were not only utilitarian, but also required complex planning and more efficient use of resources.
Hominins were the first on the European continent to develop the creations brought by others from the African continent, which, according to researchers, reflects high cognitive abilities of this species.