Oldest Boomerang in Europe Discovered

It is the oldest boomerang in Europe and perhaps in the world : it dates back more than 42,000 years , was carved from a mammoth tusk , is 70 centimetres long and was found in Poland , in the Oblazowa cave. This is indicated by the study coordinated by the University of Bologna, which places the find in an unprecedented chronological and cultural context and reveals a surprising level of cognitive ability , technical planning and symbolic thinking already in the initial phases of the presence of Homo Sapiens on the European continent. Published in the international journal Plos one, the research was born from the interdisciplinary collaboration that involved researchers from the Bravho Radiocarbon Laboratory of the University of Bologna, the Jagiellonian University of Krakow and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology of Leipzig.

"We have used all the most advanced technologies available today to determine the chronological and cultural context of this extraordinary find and the results have been surprising", observes the research coordinator Sahra Talamo, of the "Giacomo Ciamician" Chemistry Department of the University of Bologna and director of the Bravho Laboratory. "The analyses carried out - she continues - allow us to place the boomerang among the oldest symbolic and technological objects known to date in Europe: an element that testifies to the cognitive sophistication of the first Sapiens in the heart of the continent".

It has long been believed that the boomerang was invented by the Aboriginal peoples of Australia thousands of years ago. And the find unearthed in Poland is very similar to some examples of boomerangs found in Australia. It was therefore very important to be able to establish a precise dating of this object, both to better understand the development of the artistic and cultural expressions of Homo Sapiens in Europe, and to try to reconstruct the origins of this type of tool. The investigation has dated the find between 42,290 and 39,280 years ago : a result that radically changes the chronology of the Polish site and opens new perspectives on the first presence of Homo Sapiens throughout Central Europe.