Oldest ever engraving discovered on 500,000-year-old shell

Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - 16:00 in Paleontology & Archaeology

Homo erectus on Java was already using shells of freshwater mussels as tools half a million years ago, and as a 'canvas' for an engraving. The discovery of an engraved geometrical pattern on one of the shells came as a total surprise. The zig zag pattern, that can only be seen with oblique lighting, is clearly older than the weathering processes on the shell arising from fossilization.

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