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Humans

Humans were crafting tools from whale bones 20,000 years ago

More than 60 ancient tools found in France and Spain have been identified as whale bone, and the evidence shows that people made tools from this material a thousand years earlier than previously thought

By Sophie Berdugo

27 May 2025

A projectile point, made from the bone of a grey whale, from the Duruthy rock shelter in Landes, France

Alexandre Lefebvre

Hunter-gatherers living along the shores of the Bay of Biscay crafted hunting tools from the bones of at least five different whale species 20,000 years ago, marking the oldest evidence of manufacturing objects from whale remains.

Although there is evidence of Neanderthals gathering and eating molluscs in what is now southern Spain around 150,000 years ago, current findings suggest that ancient humans didn’t regularly use coastal resources for food and raw materials until around 19,000 years ago…

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