Late Paleolithic whale bone tools reveal human and whale ecology in the Bay of Biscay.

ABSTRACT: Reconstructing how prehistoric humans used the products obtained from large cetaceans is challenging, but key to understand the history of early human coastal adaptations. Here we report the multiproxy analysis (ZooMS, radiocarbon, stable isotopes) of worked objects made of whale bone, and unworked whale bone fragments, found at Upper Paleolithic sites (Magdalenian) around the Bay of Biscay. Taxonomic identification using ZooMS reveals at least five species of large whales, expanding the range of known taxa whose products were utilized by humans in this period. Radiocarbon places the use of whale products ca. 20-14 ka cal BP, with a maximum diffusion and diversity at 17.5-16 ka cal BP, making it the oldest evidence of whale-bone working to our knowledge. δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N

SUBMITTER: McGrath K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12117114 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature