Greece claims early blade industry.A Greek archeological site contains skillfully skill·ful adj. 1. Possessing or exercising skill; expert. See Synonyms at proficient. 2. Characterized by, exhibiting, or requiring skill. fashioned stone flakes and blades that date to about 100,000 years ago, researchers report in the February Current Antrhopology. Comparable stone artifacts artifacts see specimen artifacts. from the same time period have turned up in central and western Europe Western Europe The countries of western Europe, especially those that are allied with the United States and Canada in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (established 1949 and usually known as NATO). , as well as the Middle East. Scientists have associated the sharpened stones with both Neandertals and modern humans. The new find extends the distribution of sophisticated "blade industries" into southeastern Europe, asserts a research team led by Joan Huxtable of the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art The Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art is a laboratory at the University of Oxford which develops and applies scientific methods to the study of the past. As of 2005, the Laboratory is directed by Prof. Mark Pollard. in Oxford, England. However, no evidence so far shows whether the Greek artifacts were made by Neandertals or by modern humans. During the 1960s, excavations at the site -- a limestone rock-shelter known as Asprochaliko -- uncovered flakes, blades and several burnt flints in a 16-foot-deep layer of sediment. Huxtable's team conducted thermoluminescence dating Thermoluminescence (TL) dating is the determination by means of measuring the accumulated radiation dose of the time elapsed since material containing crystalline minerals was either heated (lava, ceramics) or exposed to sunlight (sediments). of two flints, comparing measurements of radioactivity annually released in the soil at Asprochaliko and radioactivity released in the form of light when the flints were heated. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion