Brilio.net/en - As we all already knew, one of the oldest fossils found was Homo erectus paleojavanicus or Java Man and it was found on the banks of Solo River near Trinil, Java. The developing studies found out that those primordial people consumed the freshwater mussels. But the last research found that they also used the shells as tools.
There are doodles found on a shell that are 540,000 to 430,000 years old. The ancient art could be the first geometric carvings made by our ancestors. Although the meaning behind those was not yet discovered now, but these scratches proved that the human ancestors could be much smarter as what we thought before.
The scholars studied 166 pieces of shells excavated in Java from the 1890s that are now kept in the Naturalis Museum in Netherlands and one shell had smoother edges that predicted it was used as tool to cut or scrape, while the other shells had scratches on its surface. The surface color was blackish while the scratches are the white engraved lines.
A team with Josephine Joordens on the lead tried to carve a freshwater mussel themselves and found that it was not an easy job. It needed an absolute power of hand and to make all those angles a precision acquired.
It was long known that Homo erectus used tools from stone but in Java, the shell tools were used more. It is interesting to find a strong evidence that the primordial used tools from material other than stones, said Pat Shipman, a veteran anthropologist lecturer from Pennsylvania State University.
One-third of the mussels found had a small hole that 80% had the same locationnear the hinge and had diameter of 0.5 to 1 cm. It certainly not caused by wildlife and most probably was used by primordial to get the content without damaging the shell.
Now researchers still have homework, such as finding out why those scratches were made. But this would trigger more studies on food, tools and culture of Homo erectus in Indonesia, said Frank Huffman, an anthropologist scholar in University of Texas di Austin. He added, the information about Java Man had been mystery in the past 120 years. The latest finding was published on Nature, an online science journal, on Wednesday, December 3, 2014.