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.