We thought that recycling was a modern phenomenon, typical of our time of consumption and growing concern for the environment, but we were wrong. 13,000 years ago, our ancestors already reused their tools, as an article published in the magazine has just shownJournal of Archaeological Science.
The results indicate that recycling was a common practice during the Upper Palaeolithic. However, it is not documented in the same way in all classes of artifacts: the tools used in hunting, such as projectile points, for example, were almost never made from other utensils. In contrast, double artifacts, which combine two tools in one piece, were recycled more. This indicates that an important part of these objects were not conceived from the beginning as double pieces, but ratherfirst one tool was manufactured and the second was added later, when it was recycled. In addition, “The use of recycled tools is more common in the case of domestic activities and seems associated with immediate needs,” explained Manolo Vaquero, director of the excavations that are being carried out in Molí del Salt (Tarragona) and author main article.
The researchers, from the Rovira i Virgili University and the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution, have reached these conclusions after analyzing the remains of burned utensils in the Tarragona site. “To identify recycling, it is necessary to differentiate two moments in the sequence of manipulation of an object: the moment before the alteration and the later; separated by an interval during which the artifact has undergone some type of alteration. It is the first time that a systematic study of this type is carried out, “explained Vaquero.
Recycling may have been a determining factor inhunter and gatherer populationsfrom this time, since the reuse of resources would prevent them from traveling to the places where the raw material to make the tools was found, which could be found far from the camp. “They simply took an artifact abandoned by the groups that previously occupied the site,” added the expert.
