Madrid: Humans recycled their stone artefacts even as early as 13,000 years ago, according to a finding based on the discovery of burnt artefacts in the Moli del Salt site in Tarragona, Spain.
"In order to identify the recycling, it is necessary to differentiate the two stages of the manipulation sequence of an object: the moment before it is altered and the moment after," said Manuel Vaquero, from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, who conducted the study.
"The two are separated by an interval in which the artefact has undergone some form of alteration. This is the first time a systematic study of this type has been performed," Vaquero said, the Journal of Archaeological Science reported.
Archaeologists found a high percentage of burnt remains in the Moli del Salt site (Tarragona), which date back to the end of the Upper Palaeolithic Age some 13,000 years ago, an age in which it is thought that the sharper the object the sharper the mind, according to a Rovira statement.
The expert ensures that "we chose these burnt artefacts because they can tell us in a very simple way whether they have been modified after being exposed to fire," Vaquero told SINC, multimedia scientific news platform in Spain.
The results indicate that the recycling of tools was normal during the particular age.
IANS
