Category: Scientific publications

  • Unlocking the mystery of Palaeolithic polished gravel

    Unlocking the mystery of Palaeolithic polished gravel

    Counting with the help of homologous items is widely attested in the ethnographic record. A team of QUANTA researchers has just published in the journal PLOS ONE results of the analysis of hundreds of small polished pebbles discovered at Palaeolithic sites in south-west France, dated between 29,000 and 20,000 years BP. They demonstrate that these…

  • A new study reveals how Homo sapiens was making clothes 39,000 years ago

    A new study reveals how Homo sapiens was making clothes 39,000 years ago

    A team of French and Spanish archaeologists report in the journal Science Advances the discovery in Catalunya of a leather punch board dating to 39,600 years BP. The study reveals that the pricking technique used in ethnographic leatherwork and by present-day cobblers to pierce thick leather pieces before assembling them together dates back to at…