Lebombo bone

Paleolithic artifact from South Africa

The Lebombo bone is a bone tool made of a baboon fibula with incised markings discovered in Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains located between South Africa and Eswatini.[1] Changes in the section of the notches indicate the use of different cutting edges, which the bone's discoverer, Peter Beaumont, views as evidence for their having been made, like other markings found all over the world, during participation in rituals.

The bone is between 43,000 and 42,000 years old, according to 24 radiocarbon datings.[2] This is far older than the Ishango bone with which it is sometimes confused. Other notched bones are 80,000 years old but it is unclear if the notches are merely decorative or if they bear a functional meaning.[3] The bone has been conjectured to be a tally stick.[4]

## See also

[edit]

* History of mathematics
* Tally sticks

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Beaumont, Peter B. (1973). "Border Cave – A Progress Report". South African Journal of Science. 69: 41–46.
2. ^ It is called a notched bone, illustrated in Fig. 1, 12 of d'Errico, F.; Backwell, L.; Villa, P.; Degano, I.; Lucejko, J. J.; Bamford, M. K.; Higham, T. F. G.; Colombini, M. P.; Beaumont, P. B. (2012). "Early evidence of San material culture represented by organic artifacts from Border Cave, South Africa". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 109 (33): 13214–13219\. Bibcode:2012PNAS..10913214D. doi:10.1073/pnas.1204213109. PMC 3421171. PMID 22847420. "[Layer] 1BS Lower B-C [is dated] between 43 ka and 42 ka."
3. ^ Vogelsang, Ralf; Richter, Jürgen; Jacobs, Zenobia; Eichhorn, Barbara; Linseele, Veerle; Roberts, Richard G.; et al. (2010). "New Excavations of Middle Stone Age Deposits at Apollo 11 Rockshelter, Namibia: Stratigraphy, Archaeology, Chronology and Past Environments". Journal of African Archaeology. 8 (2): 185–218\. doi:10.3213/1612-1651-10170.
4. ^ d'Errico, Francesco; Doyon, Luc; Colagé, Ivan; Queffelec, Alain; Le Vraux, Emma; Giacobini, Giacomo; Vandermeersch, Bernard; Maureille, Bruno (2018). "From number sense to number symbols. An archaeological perspective". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 373 (1740). doi:10.1098/rstb.2016.0518. PMC 5784044. PMID 29292345.

## External links

[edit]

* Images at African Heritage

* v
* t
* e

Prehistoric technology

* Prehistory
* Timeline
* Outline
* Stone Age
* Subdivisions
* New Stone Age
* Technology
* history
* Glossary

Tools

| Farming|

* Neolithic Revolution
* Founder crops
* New World crops
* Ard / plough
* Celt
* Digging stick
* Domestication
* Goad
* Irrigation
* Secondary products
* Sickle
* Terracing

|

Food processing
(Paleolithic diet)|

* Fire
* Basket
* Cooking
* Earth oven
* Granaries
* Grinding slab
* Ground stone
* Hearth
* Aşıklı Höyük
* Qesem cave
* Manos
* Metate
* Mortar and pestle
* Pottery
* Quern-stone
* Storage pits

Hunting|

* Arrow
* Boomerang
* throwing stick
* Bow and arrow
* history
* Nets
* Spear
* spear-thrower
* baton
* harpoon
* Schöningen
* woomera

Projectile points|

* Arrowhead
* Transverse
* Bare Island
* Cascade
* Clovis
* Cresswell
* Cumberland
* Eden
* Folsom
* Lamoka
* Manis Mastodon
* Plano

Systems|

* Game drive system
* Buffalo jump

Toolmaking|

* Earliest toolmaking
* Oldowan
* Acheulean
* Mousterian
* Aurignacian
* Clovis culture
* Cupstone
* Fire hardening
* Gravettian culture
* Hafting
* Hand axe
* Grooves
* Langdale axe industry
* Levallois technique
* Lithic core
* Lithic reduction
* analysis
* debitage
* flake
* Lithic technology
* Magdalenian culture
* Metallurgy
* Microblade technology
* Mining
* Prepared-core technique
* Solutrean industry
* Striking platform
* Tool stone
* Uniface
* Yubetsu technique

Other tools|

* Adze
* Awl
* bone
* Axe
* Bannerstone
* Blade
* prismatic
* Bone tool
* Bow drill
* Burin
* Canoe
* Oar
* Pesse canoe
* Chopper
* tool
* Cleaver
* Denticulate tool
* Fire plough
* Fire-saw
* Hammerstone
* Knife
* Microlith
* Quern-stone
* Racloir
* Rope
* Scraper
* side
* Stone tool
* Tally stick
* Weapons
* Wheel
* illustration

Architecture

| Ceremonial|

* Kiva
* Pyramid
* Standing stones
* megalith
* row
* Stonehenge

|

Dwellings|

* Neolithic architecture
* long house
* British megalith architecture
* Nordic megalith architecture
* Burdei
* Cave
* Cliff dwelling
* Dugout
* Hut
* Quiggly hole
* Jacal
* Longhouse
* Mudbrick
* Mehrgarh
* Pit-house
* Pueblitos
* Pueblo
* Rock shelter
* Blombos Cave
* Abri de la Madeleine
* Sibudu Cave
* Roundhouse
* Stilt house
* Alp pile dwellings
* Stone roof
* Wattle and daub

Water management|

* Check dam
* Cistern
* Flush toilet
* Reservoir
* Well

Other architecture|

* Archaeological features
* Broch
* Burnt mound
* fulacht fiadh
* Causewayed enclosure
* Tor enclosure
* Circular enclosure
* Goseck
* Cursus
* Henge
* Thornborough
* Megalithic architectural elements
* Midden
* Oldest extant buildings
* Timber circle
* Timber trackway
* Sweet Track

Arts and culture

| Material goods|

* Baskets
* Beadwork
* Beds
* Chalcolithic
* Clothing/textiles
* timeline
* Cosmetics
* Glue
* Hides
* shoes
* Ötzi
* Jewelry
* amber use
* Mirrors
* Pottery
* Cardium
* Cord-marked
* Grooved ware
* Jōmon
* Linear
* Unstan ware
* Sewing needle
* Weaving
* Wine
* winery
* wine press

|

Prehistoric art|

* Art of the Upper Paleolithic
* Art of the Middle Paleolithic
* Blombos Cave
* List of Stone Age art
* Bird stone
* Cairn
* Carved stone balls
* Cave paintings
* Cup and ring mark
* Geoglyph
* Hill figure
* Golden hats
* Guardian stones
* Gwion Gwion rock paintings
* painting
* pigment
* Megalithic art
* Petroform
* Petroglyph
* Petrosomatoglyph
* Pictogram
* Rock art
* Rock cupule
* Stone carving
* Sculpture
* Statue menhir
* Stone circle
* list
* British Isles and Brittany
* Venus figurine

Prehistoric music|

* Evolutionary musicology
* music archaeology
* Alligator drum
* Paleolithic flute
* Divje Babe flute
* Gudi

Prehistoric religion|

* Evolutionary origin of religion
* Paleolithic religion
* Spiritual drug use

Burial|

* Burial mounds
* Bowl barrow
* Round barrow
* Mound Builders culture
* U.S. sites
* Chamber tomb
* Cotswold-Severn
* Cist
* Dartmoor kistvaens
* Clava cairn
* Court cairn
* Cremation
* Dolmen
* Great dolmen
* Funeral pyre
* Gallery grave
* transepted
* wedge-shaped
* Grave goods
* Jar burial
* Long barrow
* unchambered
* Grønsalen
* Megalithic tomb
* Mummy
* Passage grave
* Rectangular dolmen
* Ring cairn
* Simple dolmen
* Stone box grave
* Tor cairn
* Unchambered long cairn

Other cultural|

* Archaeoastronomy
* sites
* lunar calendar
* Behavioral modernity
* Origin of language
* Prehistoric counting
* Prehistoric medicine
* trepanning
* Prehistoric warfare
* Symbols
* symbolism

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template