WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Bone Palace, Part 2 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:07.880 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:11.040 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:13.840 Time for a vault episode. This one originally published on 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:19.080 April ninth, and it's the second part of our Bone 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:25.240 Palace series. So we hope you enjoy. Welcome to Stook 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:34.560 to Blow Your Mind production of My Heart Radio. Hey, 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:36.519 welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name is 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.159 Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:43.040 part two of our episodes the Bone Palace, where the 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:45.800 humans are the bone Lords, the bones are their houses, 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:49.560 and we all build with bones. That's right. Last episode 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:54.080 we spoke quite a bit about the use of mammoth 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:59.240 bones by early people's and the harsh reality of the 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:02.160 Ice Age. Yeah, that's right. We we we talked about the 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:06.520 the bone circles of the Russian plane from the from 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:10.440 the last glacial maximum, where a Stone Age hunter gatherers 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:15.120 would take mammoth bones from either scavenged or or from 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:17.760 memoths that they had killed in hunting, and they would 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:22.160 build these strange circular walls out of them. Uh. And 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:24.959 it's not exactly known what all of these structures were 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:28.400 for We talked about a recently discovered one that that 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:31.800 yielded some especially intriguing results. We talked about what the 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.920 function of these buildings could have been. Was it a dwelling? 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:37.400 Was that a storehouse for food? To have some kind 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:41.120 of symbolic or religious significance? Uh? And today we wanted 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.240 to continue on that theme. We wanted to build with bones. 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:47.720 That's right. So it's easy, of course to just wallow 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:51.680 and the necromantic, Gothic and death metal glory of imagine 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:55.200 palaces built out of bone, and and certainly we we 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:59.440 enjoy doing that as well. Uh, paluses of bone, thrones 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.960 of bone, bone forged weapons that incur one D six 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:05.120 chronic damage on a critical hit, that sort of thing 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:09.399 orcus name be praised. But to use or the lord 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:12.359 of bones old rattle shirt from Game of Thrones, Oh yeah, 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:14.920 we'll come back to rattle shirt in a bit. But yeah, 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.920 to use bones as tools and raw materials, I mean, ultimately, 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.800 it's just good sense. So first, let's consider why so 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:27.240 for starters to state the obvious bones do decay, They 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:29.880 just decay at a much slower rate than soft tissue. 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:33.640 It might take a decade and say a rainforest environment, 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:37.680 or thousands of years in a dry environment, But decomposition 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:41.440 still eventually occurs, because we have to remember that fossils 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:44.760 are of course no longer proper bones, but they have 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:48.080 undergone mineralization. Yeah, there are a couple of methods by 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:50.800 which fossils are formed, but when you're looking at like 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:54.760 dinosaur fossils, those are not the bones of the dinosaurs. 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:59.160 They are ways that other minerals have have taken the 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:02.880 shape of the original bones. Right, But given our short lives, 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:04.880 it's easy to sort of fall into the loose idea 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:08.560 that bones last and flesh does not, and any way 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:11.320 you shake it. For us vertebrates, our bones do tend 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.600 to outlive us. The fledge rots away, but the bones remain, 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:16.919 And then what are you going to do with them? Now, 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:20.600 obviously there's a great deal of room here for human complexity. 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:25.400 We reflesh the bones with memory, magical thinking, and symbolism. 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:29.600 The skull becomes a species wide symbol for impermanence in 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:33.040 the inexorable pull of the grave. But in congress with 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:36.560 this for humans, and separate entirely from it from any organisms, 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:41.400 bones are simply durable materials of varying and novel size 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:46.360 that can lend themselves very well to various uses. And uh, 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:49.320 I thought we might begin by just considering just a 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:52.560 few quick examples from the animal world. All right, let's 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:56.360 do it. So our necromancers are fictional necromancers. From the 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.160 top of the first episode, they love a good bone pile. 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.280 Any necromancer is going to love a good bone pile. 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:06.560 And while other animals display complex emotions around death as well, 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:09.960 burial of the dead is generally the domain of humans 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:13.880 and Neanderthals. But there are other ways to amass a 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:17.800 collection of bones, and that is via predation. So think 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:21.080 of the Killer Rabbit and Monty Python and the Holy 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.160 Grail right right, yeah, look at the bones? Oh yeah, 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:27.799 Tim the enchanterer the bones or does somebody say bones shmones? 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.640 I think do they? I don't remember that part. Certainly, 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:35.359 this is a deadly killer organism and as such is 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:38.800 places just littered with with their remains. Yeah, this is 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:41.720 uh the way in which predators are often predators and 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:44.599 scavengers can become what's known in the fossil record as 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:50.080 an accumulating agent that that sort of gathers stuff together 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:52.760 into a single site, right, and then this accumulation is 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:55.720 often referred to as a nidden. So I want to 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.440 return us to a place that we've gone to many 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:00.760 times in the podcast, and that is the world of 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:04.800 the octopus or the octopus midden is a great example 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:07.960 of this, consisting of the remains of various creatures that 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:11.200 the octopus has preyed upon. And so this includes generally 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.120 it's you we're talking about shells, but also it can 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:18.240 include bones. Now, a midden like this need only be 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:22.560 the accumulated bones of one's prey, but it can be more. Uh. 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:27.320 The Sydney octopus, for example, Octopus uh tetricus. According to 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:30.559 a two thousand fourteen paper from David Shell and Peter 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.200 Godfrey Smith UH. Peter Godfrey Smith is the author as 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.279 well of Other Minds, The Octopus, the Sea and the 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:41.800 Deep Origins of Consciousness. They point out that this particular 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:45.600 octopus may be engaging in a form of ecosystem engineering 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:51.359 via their middens. Basically, they occur in large numbers on 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:54.800 a shell bed of their prey. Shell bed that has 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:57.880 become ends up becoming home to a community of invertebrate 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:02.520 grazers and scavengers, while all also creating additional shelter possibilities 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:07.240 for the occupods themselves. However, the downside seems to be 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:10.480 that the increased fish population can then bring in sharks 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:13.600 and make it a bit busier and more dangerous than 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:17.800 it would normally be for these octopuses. So, uh, it's 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.080 an interesting example, like it kind of getting into this 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:24.760 area of perhaps like accidental tinkering with the environment, accidental 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:28.560 ecosystem engineering that becomes then becomes part of this uh, 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:32.080 this creature's habit, part of its life cycle. But then 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:36.520 there's an unbalancing that occurs as well. So this makes 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.440 me think, so if the octopus is um, let me 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.039 know if I'm understanding this wrong. Is the idea maybe 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:47.560 that the octopus is using instinctually using this pile of 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:53.240 shells from its prey to attract other animals to the site, 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.760 which can then themselves become prey. Yeah, I believe so, 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:01.200 though again it comes with certain complications, maybe also attracting predators. 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:03.880 Yeah yeah, yeah. The octopus here that we're talking about 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:07.880 is is typically solitary. But the side they observed here 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:10.600 was just one of a couple of examples that scientists 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:14.000 have come across of where we've seen octopods living in 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:19.840 high density populations with complex social behaviors. Trash makes friends. Yeah, 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:22.360 but the you know, the the impact of the middens here, 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:24.560 I think drives home how the use of bone or 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:28.160 shell material can sort of emerge out of a creature's lifestyle. 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:31.000 You know, like by eating a lot of creatures and 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:35.240 then leaving their bones, you begin to create artificial environments 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:38.960 that are composed of bones, and that opens and that 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:42.600 changes the ecosystem, at least in pockets. Now, these are, 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:48.120 of course, uh, extant octopods, But what about extinct dctopods. Well, 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:51.000 there's a lot we don't know about extinct octopods because 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:54.240 you know, we're talking about creatures composed uh, you know, 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:57.440 mostly soft tissue, and there they are a rarity in 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:02.120 the fossil record. But there's there's one potential example, certainly 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:05.680 a controversial hypothesis that I've brought up on the show 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:08.040 before and I can't help but bring it up again here. 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:13.760 It's a by paleontologist Mark mcminimon, and he and his 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:18.120 co authors proposed in twleven that a peculiar arrangement of 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:22.960 etheosaur bones from the Triassic period were arranged in a 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:28.640 linear pattern by a presumed giant octopus that was playing 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:32.040 with its food, perhaps even creating some manner of And 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:34.439 this is where he gets really kind of trippy and 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.680 more controversial, the idea that perhaps this creature was not 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:42.000 only arranging the bones of its prey in a novel pattern, 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:48.520 but was engaging in some sort of self portrait. Okay, 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:51.320 so I love this idea, but it is we should 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.280 definitely acknowledge like at least two layers of pure speculation. 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:58.640 I mean, it is not not accepted by the scientific 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:01.680 community in any brought way at all. So the first 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:04.920 layer of speculation is just the idea that the octopus 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:08.600 was arranging the bones like this, which that doesn't seem 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.080 implausible to me, but still it's speculative. We don't know 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:13.840 that's what happened. The second level is the intention behind 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:16.840 the arrangement, the idea that the octopus was creating a 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.920 portrait of its own tentacle, right or not tentacle arm? Sorry, yeah, 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:22.880 so you know there's a there's no way to for 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:25.080 us to know that it is pure speculation. I mean, 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:27.920 and again, even the the idea of this being an 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:32.320 actual species. It's just we have a presume the researchers 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:34.840 are presuming that there is an octopus here that did this, 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:37.920 because there is again no no fossil evidence of its 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:40.319 of it's of the soft tissue that would be associated 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.079 with this creature that is sometimes informally referred to as 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:46.680 a crack in a Triassic kracking. Now, on the other hand, 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:49.640 I would not say at all that it would be 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:55.120 implausible for an octopus to mess around with the bones 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:58.360 of its prey animals and put them in strange arrangements, 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:02.280 because octopus is absolutely modern. Octopuses play, They play with 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.760 objects all the time. They manipulate objects in ways that 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:10.000 have no obvious, uh practical advantage. You know, they're not 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:13.600 just like using objects as tools or something. They apparently 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:18.560 engage in purely recreational object manipulation. Right, And then one 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:21.880 can easily imagine that you have this, you have this 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:25.280 play that's occurring with the bones. This you know, steady 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:28.640 manipulation of the bones, and it's the thing that could 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:33.120 in theory, lead to more complex uses of bones later on, 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:35.920 the use of bones as tools. Now, I don't think 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:40.000 we've see anything occurring in nature with octopods with bones 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:42.600 like this, But we do have examples of octopods seeming 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:47.520 to engage in tool you say, with with coconuts or shells, right, yeah, yeah, 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:51.600 using them basically is like a shield for their bodies. Yeah. Now, 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.120 other animals certainly work with bones and shells as well. 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:57.480 Bones factor into the nesting behaviors of certain birds and 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:00.640 pack rats. Bower birds have been no known to use 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:04.240 bones in the creation of their mating bowers. But when 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.839 you think of bones as tools or bones as materials, 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:11.000 you can't help but think of hominids and their two 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:14.679 and the two use of early humans in particular, perhaps 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:18.079 in part due to that stunning sequence uh that we've 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:20.560 all seen from two thousand and one A Space Odyssey, right, 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:23.960 in which a human ancestor discovers that the bone of 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.239 a taper might be used as a weapon, not stonework, 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:30.240 but bone work. Now. I love this scene. We've talked 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:33.680 about it on the show before, But this scene is 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:39.040 actually a reference to the nineteen forty nine uh Osteodonto 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:44.120 choratic culture hypothesis or O d K hypothesis by Professor 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:47.880 Raymond Dart, the man who also identified the tongue child 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:51.760 fossil in nineteen two UM What does that mean? The 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:55.520 O d K hypothesis is basically bone tooth horn culture 0:11:55.800 --> 0:12:00.280 OSTEO danto choratic culture, and the idea here is that 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:05.040 austro Lepithecus Africanists would have engaged in a carnivorous and 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:10.480 sometimes cannibalistic lifestyle augmented by bone and horn tools that 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:14.000 they used to hunt other animals and each other. Dart 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:18.160 based this on skeletal part representation patterns at fossil sites, 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:21.880 presenting evidence that they were possibly using bones as tools 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:25.640 and weapons. Essentially, it's a model for the transition from 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:30.120 ape to human via bone assisted predation, depending on tools 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:33.000 made from the bones of their own kills and or 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:36.199 the kills of other predators that they have scavenged. Now, 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:39.560 this hypothesis has met with a generally skeptical audience and 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.880 it's and it had several notable detractors. Now it is 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.240 generally considered that O. D K culture did not exist 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:49.080 as Dart envisioned it, and that the bones he observed 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:53.600 were simply due to the natural breakup of skeletons, predator preferences, 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:57.920 and environmental damage to skeletal remains. The criticism of the 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:01.080 hyena is is often brought up as a possible scavenger 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:05.080 responsible for the bone. Didn'ts that Dart interpreted as an 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:08.320 example of this O d K culture. All right, so 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:12.319 darts picture of this extinct human relative making this tool 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:15.840 use transition through the use of bones for wide scale 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:20.320 or large scale predation. That's probably not accurate, but that 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:24.280 doesn't mean that humans never used bones as tools, right, Yeah, 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:25.880 And I want to drive home that od K culture 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:28.200 hypothesis was not it was this was not like a 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:32.640 crazy hypothesis, and it's you know, it's it's it's very 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:35.360 very sensible. But yeah, it just doesn't seem like it's 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:39.559 really um held up over time. But still at the 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:43.440 same time, the use of bone tools is an important 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:46.840 part of of human tool use. There's evidence of early 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:50.480 humans using bone tools one point five million years ago 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:53.240 and what is now South Africa, and these would have 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:57.280 been used, uh we believe to dig in termine mounds. 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:00.080 Included a photo here for you to look at them. Know, 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:02.719 they the kind of thing where you know, if you 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:04.880 didn't know what you were looking at, you might not 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:09.120 get that these were tools. But but these were specialized tools. 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:12.080 I mean, this is a huge problem in archaeology actually. 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:15.679 I mean by the time we as just lay consumers 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:19.480 of artifacts come to these artifacts, they've already been interpreted 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:22.520 as tools. But when you're just like looking at sediments 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:25.000 in the ground and fragments of things, it's often hard 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:28.560 to tell what is a tool and what is not. Yeah. 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:32.200 Another example, I came across bone knives from North Africa 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:37.600 dating back ninety thousand years connected with Middlestone Age terry 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.400 and culture, and these would have been made from rib bones. Wait, 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:43.880 rib bones of what of humans or of something else? 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:47.560 I believe animal, But I'm not sure they really were 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.000 able to figure out exactly what sort of animal. Now. 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:52.520 According to a two thousand fifteen study from the University 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:56.680 of Montreal, Neanderthals of the Middle Paleolithic might have used 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:01.080 made use of multi purpose bone tools. These were found 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:07.600 at grot Dubaison grotd Bissan at r C Circure in Burgundy, France, 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:10.800 and they would have been used alongside stone tools. So 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:13.560 you know, it's not this idea of like bone or stone, 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:16.040 but like bone and stone. And I think that makes sense, 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:20.320 especially based in the UH the example that we uh 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:22.880 we we focused on for the first episode in this 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:25.840 pair of episodes about bone technology. Yeah. Now, I can 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:29.320 think about some ways in which stone I think would 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:34.040 be superior to bone it for certain types of tool uses. 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:36.800 And one of the things is that, uh it seems 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:40.200 there are certain types of stones that flake away in 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:44.040 a kind of shearing pattern, which along with the technique 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:46.600 of napping, which is where you strike stones together to 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:49.560 try to shear off part of a target stone to 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.880 make a sharp edge on it. That that works with stones, 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:55.400 but it doesn't really work with bones, at least as 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:57.880 far as I can imagine. But that doesn't mean bones 0:15:57.920 --> 0:15:59.920 would be useless. It would just mean that you couldn't 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:04.080 use them really to create a knife edge as effectively 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:07.360 as you can with napping of certain types of rock. Yeah. 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:09.080 So I could be wrong about that, does it? Does 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:11.760 that seem right to you? Yeah? I think so? Yeah. Yeah. 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.960 So again, this would have been a multi purpose bone 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:19.400 tool that the Neanderthals would have used here. Uh so, 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:22.000 the Reacher's researchers point out that, first of all, naturally 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:24.400 the prime purpose of hunting an animal was to obtain 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:28.000 meat and also hide, but the bones were very useful 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:30.680 as well. Uh So, for example, one of the bone 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.160 tools found here, that the pivotal multi tool that they're 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:36.120 talking about here, was made from the left femur of 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:39.560 an adult reindeer, and it was seemingly used for a 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:43.880 few different purposes. First of all, carved sharpening of cutting 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:47.320 edges of stone tools, So you would have used bone 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:50.640 tools to help refine and make your stone tools. That 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:53.440 makes sense. Uh. This would have also been probably used 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:56.920 as a scraper and quote evidence of meat butchering and 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.880 bone fracturing to extract marrow or evidence on the tool. 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.240 So yeah, this would have been a very useful device. 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:06.240 And again I included a picture for you to see, Joe. 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:08.720 And again it's one of these things where you know, 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:10.280 you know, if you if you're not, you didn't know 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:13.440 what you're looking at. If you're not you know paleontologists, uh, 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.000 you you might not get that what you're looking at 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:18.480 is a multi tool. Are staring at it here for 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:20.359 the longest time trying to figure out what it looks like. 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:22.600 I realized if you turn it sideways, it looks like 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.359 an iguana head. So it does kind of looks like 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:29.399 a horner ear on it. Yeah, but that that spike 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.840 edge there. Yeah. Now, another interesting thing about this particular 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:36.840 study is that prehistoric experts were previously reluctant to attribute 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:40.960 bone work tools to Neanderthals, but such fines as this 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:43.840 from the very late nineteen nineties and then into the 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.280 twenty first century changed that. I also want to point 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:51.040 out that the Eureka Alert release on this particular study 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:54.000 bears the amusing title quote, you have a dab a 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:58.720 dough stone age man wasn't necessarily more advanced than the Neandertals. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.960 Oh my god. Ten points So that's so good. Wait wait, wait, 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:05.320 should they have gone with the abadebba? Don't because he 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:07.720 was not necessarily more advanced. I don't know if that 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:11.240 quite makes sense. Uh, that one was probably on the table. 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:13.800 I'm guessing. I'm just guessing. And then someone's like, oh, man, 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:15.920 what if we work Homer into this as well? Fred 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:21.400 Flintstone and Homer in one single uh science press release title. 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:23.720 This is gonna be great. Alright, we're gonna take a 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:25.760 quick break, but when we come back, we are going 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:32.919 to discuss more about bone tools and bone technology. Thank alright, 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:38.119 we're back. So bone technology stands alongside stone technology is 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:41.640 as a key marker of technological and cognitive development, even 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:43.359 if we're not putting all of our eggs in the 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:46.119 O d K basket, so you won't really find it 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:50.480 popping up in extent non human animals. But how about 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:54.200 how about this You mentioned old rattle shirt earlier, Um, 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:57.840 you mentioned bone armor and that I brings to buy 0:18:57.920 --> 0:18:59.880 not only old rattle shirt, but it makes me think 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.720 of the Kurgan from Highlander. Remember that bone armor that 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.520 he wears or it's like bone augmented to armor, don't 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:10.800 do the necromongers in in in Chronicles of Riddick were 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:14.520 bone armor. I don't remember. I mean they certainly have 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:20.920 some some dark, gloomy, you know, necromantic aspects to their armor. 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:23.359 I don't remember if they actually had any real bone, 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:26.720 but but certainly they would have appreciated those who wore 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:30.400 pone without a doubt. Another example that's really burned into 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:34.960 my mind is the character General Cal from Willow. You 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:37.960 saw Willow, Yes, yes, yes, yes, it's been a long time, 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:41.679 but yeah, he was the sub villain in that particular movie. 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:44.879 And of course he was played by Pat Roach, everyone's 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:49.760 favorite former pro wrestler British heavy man. Uh you know, 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:52.240 he's alway, he was always fighting. He's he's what he's 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:55.440 He's been killed by Indiana Jones, He's been killed by 0:19:55.720 --> 0:20:00.119 Conan the Barbarian, all the greats. In fact, he as 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:03.520 he played the Sorcerer in Conan the Destroyer. Uh if 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:06.720 you're really wait a minute, did the Sorcerer and Conan 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:09.560 the Destroyer also have bone armor and get like a 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:12.840 sword thrown through his head or something? Um? It was 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:15.720 the scene with the mirrors. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:19.960 really a fantastic sequence. I really need to I can't 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:22.000 believe I'm saying this. I really need to watch Conan 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:25.080 the Destroyer again because it does have some great two 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:28.760 scenes there. It has a reputation for being quite bad, 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:31.920 but we should revisit anyway. It had a tough act 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:34.720 to follow, for sure, but it has some some pretty 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:38.040 wonderful magic in it, as I recall, certainly really more overt, 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:41.359 you know, fantasy magic than what you find in the 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:45.399 first film. Uh. Well, anyway, this is making me wonder. Okay, 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:48.480 bone armor real thing? Did anybody ever actually try to 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:52.560 wear armor made out of bones? Well? You know, obviously 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:54.880 there's some problems with the idea. I mean it would 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.760 it would be ideal if there was a slightly larger 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:02.480 bipedal creature that had bones and bone plates that were 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:05.880 just already perfectly made for someone to wear his armor. Uh. 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:07.840 You know, I'm sure we would hunt it to extinction 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:10.840 uh in no time. But I don't know. I wonder 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:13.320 if that's been that idea has been explored in fantasy. 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:16.440 That's where all the squatches went, so they were to 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:20.320 extinction for their bones. Uh. Yes, the squatch skull makes 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:24.879 such a great helm. Well, in reality, you know, you know, 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:26.800 there are probably some examples you can come to where 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:30.439 people are used utilizing bone ornamentation, but in terms of 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:34.119 using bone as like the primary material and construction, I 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:37.679 did run across a really cool example. Uh. This is 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:41.320 from a three thousand, nine hundred year old suit of 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:47.160 bone armor that was unearthed in Omsk, Siberia. And in 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:50.320 this example, and I encourage anyone to look up an 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:51.800 example of this, you'll find a picture if you just 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:55.760 look for bone armor OMPs that's O. M. S. K Uh. 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:58.440 In this example, what we have is basically a shirt 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:02.840 of plate mail, but with each individual plate carved from 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:06.600 animal bone and Uh, you know, it reminds me too 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:09.439 of the sort of the ceremonial jade armor that you 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:13.760 see used in Chinese culture. Um, where nobody's wearing like 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:16.080 just like the big obvious bones of a creature, but 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:18.280 you have all of these little plates of bone. They 0:22:18.320 --> 0:22:21.600 are then stitched into this this garment that is worn 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:25.000 by the warrior. And this would have been worn, the 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:28.280 researchers point out, by a very specialized warrior, a hero 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:33.320 if you will, a prince of the universe, if you will, yes, Well, 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:36.320 do we know exactly what the pros and cons of 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:39.199 this type of armor would have been if it involved bone? Like, 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:43.200 are there like how does that compare to standard materials? 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:46.560 Do do we know anything about that? About the it's durability? 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:49.359 I mean, I think this is something we need to 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:52.560 explore and if if for a future like full on 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:55.320 look at armor, which is something we've been talking about 0:22:55.359 --> 0:22:58.720 wanting to do for a while. But I mean, basically, 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:02.439 we do see so many different approaches to armor in 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:06.160 different cultures depending on available resources. You know, we we've 0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:09.119 discussed in the past, Uh, the Inca and how Inca 0:23:09.240 --> 0:23:13.720 armor depended so heavily on fiber. You know, and UH 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:16.399 and it could apparently it was apparently quite effective in 0:23:16.440 --> 0:23:19.199 their engagements. Uh. Certainly you get into cultures that have 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:23.800 more access to uh various metal working UH strategies, and 0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:26.960 you see the metal armor. Uh. This seems to to 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:30.399 make sense though, because you would have a durable material 0:23:30.720 --> 0:23:33.520