Earliest Human Engraving or Trash From an Ancient Lunch?
Scientists have discovered enigmatic markings on an ancient shell that’s been sitting in a museum for more than a century — and they believe this may be the oldest known example of a deliberate geometric engraving made by a human hand.
The carved zigzag marks, described in this week’s issue of the journal Nature, appear on a shell that was collected at the end of the 19th century by the Dutch anatomist Dr. Eugene Dubois, who was fascinated by the then-radical idea of human evolution. He set out to Indonesia to search for fossils that would provide a missing link — and prove that humans descended from apes.
” It raises the possibility that the development of human cognition — human culture — was a very long process. It was not a sudden development.
- Alison Brooks, paleoanthropologist, George Washington University
Dubois famously discovered the remains of what scientists now call Homo erectus, an extinct human species that appeared more than a million years ago.
More: Earliest Human Engraving or Trash From an Ancient Lunch? : NPR