WEBVTT - The Bone Palace, Part 2 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.360 Welcome to Scoot to Blow Your Mind production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:14.560 Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:17.239 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.800 we're back with part two of our episodes the Bone Palace, 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:23.640 where the humans are the bone lords, the bones are 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:26.680 their houses, and we all build with bones. That's right. 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:31.840 Last episode we spoke quite a bit about the use 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:37.360 of mammoth bones by early people's in the harsh reality 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:39.840 of the Ice Age. Yeah, that's right. We we talked 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:44.480 about the the bone circles of the Russian plane from 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:48.000 the from the last glacial maximum, where a Stone Age 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:53.120 hunter gatherers would take mammoth bones from either scavenged or 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:55.920 or from mammoths that they had killed in hunting, and 0:00:55.960 --> 0:01:00.560 they would build these strange circular walls out of them. Uh. 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:03.360 And it's not exactly known what all of these structures 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:06.360 were for. We talked about a recently discovered one, uh 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:09.800 that that yielded some especially intriguing results. We talked about 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:12.679 what the function of these buildings could have been. Was 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:15.080 it a dwelling, was it a storehouse for food? To 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:18.800 have some kind of symbolic or religious significance. Uh, and 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:21.400 today we wanted to continue on that theme. We wanted 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:25.280 to build with bones. That's right. So it's easy, of 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.759 course to just wallow in the necromantic, Gothic and death 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:32.360 metal glory of imagine palaces built out of bone, and 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:35.960 and certainly we we enjoy doing that as well. Uh, 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:40.399 palaces of bone, thrones of bone, bone forged weapons that 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:43.040 incur one D six chrotic damage on a critical hit, 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:46.800 that sort of thing, Orcus's name be praised. But to 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:49.560 use or the Lord of bones old rattle shirt from 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:51.880 Game of Thrones. Oh yeah, we'll come back to rattle 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:54.480 shirt in a bit. But yeah, he used bones as 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:57.800 tools and and raw materials. I mean, ultimately, it's just 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:02.160 good sense. So first let's consider why so for starters 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:06.279 to state the obvious bones do decay. They just decay 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.040 at a much slower rate than soft tissue. It might 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:13.320 take a decade and say a rainforest environment, or thousands 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:18.400 of years in a dry environment, but decomposition still eventually occurs. 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:20.440 Because we have to remember that fossils are of course 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:25.400 no longer proper bones, but they have undergone mineralization. Yeah, 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.960 there are a couple of methods by which fossils are formed. 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:30.960 But when you're looking at like dinosaur fossils, those are 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:34.760 not the bones of the dinosaurs. They are ways that 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:40.120 other minerals have have taken the shape of the original bones. Right, 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:42.120 But given our short lives, it's easy to sort of 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:45.239 fall into the loose idea that bones last and flesh 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:48.679 does not, and anyway you shake it. For us vertebrates, 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:51.919 our bones do tend to outlive us. The flesh rots away, 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:54.080 but the bones remain. And then what are you going 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:56.959 to do with them? Now, obviously there's a great deal 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:01.160 of room here for human complexity. We reflesh the bones 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:05.160 with memory, magical thinking, and symbolism. The skull becomes a 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:09.320 species wide symbol for impermanence in the inexorable pull of 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:12.520 the grave. But in congress with this for humans, and 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:16.360 separate entirely from it from any organisms, bones are simply 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:21.280 durable materials of varying and novel size that can lend 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:25.239 themselves very well to various uses. And uh, I thought 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:28.360 we might begin by just considering just a few quick 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.600 examples from the animal world. All right, let's do it. 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:35.160 So our necromancers are fictional necromancers, from the top of 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:37.920 the first episode. They love a good bone pile. Any 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:41.200 necromancer is gonna love a good bone pile. And while 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:45.920 other animals display complex emotions around death as well, burial 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:49.480 of the dead is generally the domain of humans and Neanderthals. 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.640 But there are other ways to amass a collection of bones, 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:57.440 and that is via predation. So think of the Killer 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:01.000 Rabbit and Monty Python and the Holy Grail right right, yeah, 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:03.840 look at the bones. Oh yeah, Tim the enchanterer the 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:07.400 bones or does somebody say bones shmones? I think I 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:11.640 don't remember that part. Certainly, this is a deadly killer 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:15.400 organism and as such is places just littered with with 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:18.520 their remains. Yeah, this is uh the way in which 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:22.120 predators are often predators and scavengers can become what's known 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:27.080 in the fossil record as an accumulating agent that that 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:30.040 sort of gathers stuff together into a single site. Right, 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:32.880 and then this accumulation is often referred to as a midden. 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:35.719 So I want to return us to a place that 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.279 we've gone to many times in the podcast, and that 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.919 is the world of the octopus or the octopus midden 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:45.039 is a great example of this, consisting of the remains 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:48.520 of various creatures that the octopus has preyed upon, and 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:51.279 so this includes generally it's you we're talking about shells, 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:54.920 but also it can include bones. Now, a midden like 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:58.840 this need only be the accumulated bones of one's prey, 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:03.040 but it can be more. Uh. The Sydney occtopus, for example, 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:07.200 Octopus uh tetricus, according to a two thousand fourteen paper 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:11.479 from David Shell and Peter Godfrey Smith UH. Peter Godfrey 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:14.840 Smith is the author as well of Other Minds, The Octopus, 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:18.279 the Sea and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. They point 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:21.839 out that this particular octopus may be engaging in a 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:27.839 form of ecosystem engineering via their middens. Basically, they occur 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:31.760 in large numbers on a shell bed of their prey. 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:34.919 Shell bed that has become ends up becoming home to 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:39.200 a community of invertebrate grazers and scavengers, while also creating 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:45.200 additional shelter possibilities for the occupids themselves. However, the downside 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:48.120 seems to be that the increased fish population can then 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:50.960 bring in sharks and make it a bit busier and 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:55.839 more dangerous than it would normally be for these octopuses. So, uh, 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.520 it's an interesting example, like it kind of getting into 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:02.680 this area of perhaps like accidental tinkering with the environment, 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:07.039 accidental ecosystem engineering that becomes then becomes part of this Uh, 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.599 this creature's habit, part of its life cycle. But then 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:15.080 there's an unbalancing that occurs as well. So this makes 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:17.960 me think, so if the octopus is um let me 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:20.560 know if I'm understanding this wrong, is the idea maybe 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:26.080 that the octopus is using instinctually using this pile of 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:31.800 shells from its prey to attract other animals to the site, 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:35.320 which can then themselves become prey. Yeah, I believe so, 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:40.640 though again it comes with certain complications, maybe also attracting predators. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:44.760 The octopus here that we're talking about is is typically solitary. 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:47.159 But the side they observed here was just one of 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.799 a couple of examples that scientists have come across of 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.560 where we've seen octopods living in high density populations with 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:59.000 complex social behaviors. Trash makes friends. Yeah, but the you know, 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.560 the the impact of the middens here I think drives 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:04.360 home how the use of bone or shell material can 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.040 sort of emerge out of a creature's lifestyle, you know, 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:10.040 like by eating a lot of creatures and then leaving 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:14.080 their bones, you begin to create artificial environments that are 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:18.200 composed of bones. And that opens a and that changes 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:21.920 the ecosystem, at least in pockets. Now, these are, of course, uh, 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:27.080 extant octopods. But what about extinct dctopods. Well, there's a 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.040 lot we don't know about extinct octopods because you know, 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.960 we're talking about creatures composed uh, you know, mostly soft tissue, 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:37.000 and there they are a rarity in the fossil record. 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:42.880 But there's there's one potential example, certainly a controversial hypothesis 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:45.200 that I've brought up on the show before and I 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:47.120 can't help but bring it up again here. It's a 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:53.000 by paleontologist Mark mcminimon, and he and his co authors 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:58.040 proposed in Tleven that a peculiar arrangement of etheosaur bones 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.920 from the Triassic pure It were arranged in a linear 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:07.320 pattern by a presumed giant octopus that was playing with 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:10.720 its food, perhaps even creating some manner of And this 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:14.160 is where it gets really kind of trippy and more controversial, 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:17.560 the idea that perhaps this creature was not only arranging 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:20.960 the bones of its prey in a novel pattern, but 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:27.280 was engaging in some sort of self portrait. Okay, so 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:30.520 I love this idea, but it is we should definitely 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:34.120 acknowledge like at least two layers of pure speculation. I mean, 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.240 first of all, is not not accepted by the scientific 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:40.200 community in any broadway at all. And so the first 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:43.480 layer of speculation is just the idea that the octopus 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:47.160 was arranging the bones like this, which that doesn't seem 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:49.640 implausible to me, but still it's speculative. We don't know 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:52.360 that's what happened. The second level is the intention behind 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:55.400 the arrangement, the idea that the octopus was creating a 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:59.400 portrait of its own tentacle right or not tentacle arm? Sorry, yeah, 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:01.679 so know there's a there's no way to for us 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:04.160 to know that. It's pure speculation, I mean, and again, 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.560 even the the idea of this being an actual species, 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:11.599 it's just we have a presume the researchers are presuming 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.000 that there is an octopus here that did this, because 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:16.560 there is again no no fossil evidence of its of 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:19.200 it's of the soft tissue that would be associated with 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:21.640 this creature. That is sometimes informally referred to as a 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.240 crack in a Triassic kracking. Now, on the other hand, 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:28.240 I would not say at all that it would be 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:33.680 implausible for an octopus to mess around with the bones 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:36.880 of its prey animals and put them in strange arrangements, 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.800 because octopus is absolutely modern. Octopuses play, They play with 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:44.320 objects all the time. They manipulate objects in ways that 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:48.560 have no obvious, uh practical advantage. You know, they're not 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:52.160 just like using objects as tools or something. They apparently 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:57.120 engage in purely recreational object manipulation. Right, And then one 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:01.040 can easily imagine that you have the this play that's 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:04.520 occurring with the bones, have this you know, steady manipulation 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:07.840 of the bones, and it's the thing that could in theory, 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:12.000 lead to more complex uses of bones later on, the 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.560 use of bones as tools. Now, I don't think we've 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:18.760 see anything occurring in nature with octopods with bones like this, 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:21.640 but we do have examples of octopods seeming to engage 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:26.040 in tool you say, with with coconuts or shells, right, yeah, yeah, 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:30.160 using them basically as like a shield for their bodies. Yeah. Now, 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:32.640 other animals certainly work with bones and shells as well. 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:36.040 Bones factor into the nesting behaviors of certain birds and 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:39.640 pack rats. Bower birds have been known to use bones 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.920 in the creation of their mating bowers. But when you 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.840 think of bones as tools or bones as materials, you 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.680 can't help but think of hominids and they're two. And 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:53.360 the tool use of early humans in particular, perhaps in 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:56.800 part due to that stunning sequence, uh, that we've all 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.120 seen from two thousand and one A Space Odyssey, right, 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:02.400 in which a human an ancestor discovers that the bone 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:05.760 of a taper might be used as a weapon, not stonework, 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:08.800 but bone work. Now. I love this scene. We've talked 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.080 about it on the show before. Uh. But this scene 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:16.200 is actually a reference to the nineteen forty nine uh 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:22.120 osteodonto koratic culture hypothesis or O d K hypothesis by 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:26.080 Professor Raymond Dart, the man who also identified the tongue 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:29.800 child fossil in nineteen twenty four. Um. Uh, what does 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.400 that mean? The O d K hypothesis is basically bone 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:38.040 tooth horn culture OSTEO danto choratic culture, and the idea 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:42.440 here is that austro Lepithecus africanus would have engaged in 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:47.600 a carnivorous and sometimes cannibalistic lifestyle augmented by bone and 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:51.240 horn tools that they used to hunt other animals and 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:55.840 each other. Dart based this on skeletal part representation patterns 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:59.480 at fossil sites, presenting evidence that they were possibly using 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:02.880 bones as tools and weapons. Essentially, it's a model for 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:07.360 the transition from ape to human via bone assisted predation, 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:10.320 depending on tools made from the bones of their own 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:13.480 kills and or the kills of other predators that they 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.680 have scavenged. Now, this hypothesis has met with a generally 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:20.400 skeptical audience, and it's and it had several notable detractors. 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.880 Now it is generally considered that O. D K culture 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:26.680 did not exist as Dart envisioned it, and that the 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:29.840 bones he observed were simply due to the natural breakup 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:34.800 of skeletons, predator preferences, and environmental damage to skeletal remains. 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.040 The criticism of the hyena is all is often brought 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.360 up as a possible scavenger responsible for the bone biddens 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:44.800 that Dart interpreted as an example of this O. D 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.559 K culture. All right, so darts picture of this extinct 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:52.360 human relative making this tool use transition through the use 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:56.840 of bones for wide scale or large scale predation. That's 0:12:56.840 --> 0:13:00.440 probably not accurate, but that doesn't mean that human never 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:03.199 used bones as tools, right, Yeah, And I want to 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:05.920 drive home that od K culture hypothesis was not it 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:09.280 was this was not like a crazy hypothesis, and it's 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:12.920 you know, it's it's it's very very sensible. But yeah, 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:16.120 it just doesn't seem like it's really um held up 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.400 over time. But until at the same time, the use 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:23.439 of bone tools is an important part of of human 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:26.959 tool use. There's evidence of early humans using bone tools 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:29.679 one point five million years ago and what is now 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.320 South Africa, and these would have been used, uh we 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:37.680 believe to dig in termite mounds. Included a photo here 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:39.719 for you to look at them, Joe. They the kind 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:41.640 of thing where you know, if you didn't know what 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.320 you were looking at, you might not get that these 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:47.959 were tools. But but these were specialized tools. I mean, 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:50.880 this is a huge problem in archaeology actually. I mean 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:55.080 by the time we as just lay consumers of artifacts 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:58.680 come to these artifacts, they've already been interpreted as tools. 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:01.280 But when you're just like looking at sediments in the 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:04.120 ground and fragments of things, it's often hard to tell 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.880 what is a tool and what is not. Yeah. Another example, 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:11.320 I came across bone knives from North Africa dating back 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:16.640 ninety thousand years connected with Middlestone Age terry and culture, 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:18.959 and these would have been made from rib bones. Wait, 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:22.440 rib bones of what of humans? Or of something else? 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:26.080 I believe animal, but I'm not sure they really were 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:28.560 able to figure out exactly what sort of animal. Now. 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.040 According to a two thousand fifteen study from the University 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:35.200 of Montreal, Neanderthals of the Middle Paleolithic might have used 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.600 made use of multi purpose bone tools. These were found 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:44.240 at Grot Dubaison or Grot de Bissan at r C 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:47.720 Circure in Burgundy, France, and they would have been used 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.840 alongside stone tools. So you know, it's not this idea 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:53.360 of like bone or stone, but like bone and stone. 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.440 And I think that makes sense, especially based in the 0:14:57.160 --> 0:14:59.800 uh the example that we uh we we focused on 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:02.640 for a first episode in this pair of episodes about 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:05.880 bone technology. Yeah, Now, I can think about some ways 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:10.120 in which stone I think would be superior to bone 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:13.400 it for certain types of tool uses. And one of 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:16.000 the things is that uh it seems there are certain 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:19.320 types of stones that flake away in a kind of 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:23.440 shearing pattern, which along with the technique of napping, which 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:25.840 is where you strike stones together to try to shear 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:28.840 off part of a target stone to make a sharp 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:31.760 edge on it. That that works with stones, but it 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:34.200 doesn't really work with bones, at least as far as 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.240 I can imagine. But that doesn't mean bones would be useless. 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:39.360 It would just mean that you couldn't use them really 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:43.120 to create a knife edge as effectively as you can 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.320 with napping of certain types of rock. Yeah, so I 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:48.000 could be wrong about that, does it? Does that seem 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.880 right to you? Yeah? I think so? Yeah. Yeah. So again, 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.160 this would have been a multi purpose bone tool that 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.440 the Neanderthals would have used here. Uh So, the Reacher's 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.000 researchers point out that first of all, naturally the prime 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:03.760 purpose of hunting an animal was to obtain meat and 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.000 also hide, but the bones were very useful as well. 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.080 Uh So, For example, one of the bone tools found here, 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:12.400 that the pivotal multi tool that they're talking about here, 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:15.960 was made from the left femur of an adult reindeer, 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:19.120 and it was seemingly used for a few different purposes. 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:24.040 First of all, carved sharpening of cutting edges of stone tools, 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.480 So you would have used bone tools to help refine 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.640 and make your stone tools. That makes sense. Uh. This 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.360 would have also been probably used as a scraper and 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:37.320 quote evidence of meat butchering and bone fracturing to extract 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:41.440 marrow are evident on the tool. So yeah, this would 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:43.560 have been a very useful device. And again I included 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:45.560 a picture for you to see, Joe. And again it's 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:47.920 one of these things where you know, you know, if 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:49.400 you if you're not, you didn't know what you're looking at. 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:53.000 If you're not you know paleontologists, uh, you you might 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:55.800 not get that what you're looking at is a multi tool. 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:57.960 Are staring at it here for the longest time trying 0:16:57.960 --> 0:16:59.560 to figure out what it looks like. I realized if 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.480 you turn it sideways, it looks like an iguana head. 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.000 So it does kind of looks like a horner ear 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:09.360 on it. Yeah, but that that spike edge there. Yeah. Now, 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:12.879 another interesting thing about this particular study is that prehistoric 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:17.760 experts were previously reluctant to attribute bone work tools to Neanderthals, 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:21.320 but such fines as this from the very late ninety 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:24.120 nineties and then into the twenty first century changed that. 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.760 I also want to point out that the Eureka Alert 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:31.679 release on this particular study bears the amusing title quote, 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:36.359 Yabadaba dough Stone age man wasn't necessarily more advanced than 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:40.679 than neandertals. Oh my god. Ten points. So that's so good. 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:42.800 Wait wait, wait should they have gone with the Abadeba? 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.000 Don't because he was not necessarily more advanced. I don't 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:48.840 know if that quite makes sense. Uh, that one was 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:51.199 probably on the table. I'm guessing. I'm just guessing. And 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:53.320 then someone's like, oh, man, what if we worked Homer 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:56.040 into this as well? Fred flint Stone and Homer in 0:17:56.160 --> 0:18:00.680 one single uh science press release title. This is gonna 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:02.760 be great. All Right, we're gonna take a quick break, 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:04.920 but when we come back, we are going to discuss 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:11.920 more about bone tools and bone technology. Thank alright, we're back. 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:16.920 So bone technology stands alongside stone technology is as a 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:20.520 key marker of technological and cognitive development. Even if we're 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:22.159 not putting all of our eggs in the O d 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:25.320 K basket, so you won't really find it popping up 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:29.679 in extant non human animals. But how about how about this? 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:34.480 You mentioned old rattle shirt earlier. Um, you mentioned bone armor, 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:37.600 and that idea brings to buy not only old rattle shirt, 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.160 but it makes me think of the Kurgan from Highlander. 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:43.080 Remember that bone armor that he wears or it's like 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:48.159 bone augmented armor, don't do the necromongers in in in 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:52.240 Chronicles of Riddick were bone armor. I don't remember. I 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:56.040 mean they certainly have some some dark, gloomy, you know, 0:18:56.320 --> 0:19:00.239 necromantic aspects to their armor. I don't remember if they 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:03.880 actually had any real bone but but certainly they would 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:07.880 have appreciated those who wore without a doubt. Another example 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:11.240 that's really burned into my mind is the character General 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:15.520 Cal from Willow. You saw Willow, Yes, yes, yes, yes, 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:17.720 it's been a long time, but yeah, he was the 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:21.000 sub villain in that particular movie. And of course he 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:26.480 was played by Pat Roach, everyone's favorite former pro wrestler, 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:28.920 British heavy man. Uh. You know, he's alway, he was 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:31.840 always fighting, he's he's what he's He's been killed by 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:35.720 Indiana Jones, he's been killed by Conan the Barbarian, all 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:39.800 the greats. In fact, he was he played the sorcerer 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:44.119 in Conan the Destroyer. Uh if you're really wait a minute, 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:46.800 did the Sorcerer and Conan the Destroyer also have bone 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.520 armor and get like a sword thrown through his head 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:54.280 or something? Um, it was the scene with the mirrors. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:58.520 really a fantastic sequence. I really need to I can't 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:00.639 believe I'm saying this. I really need watch Conan the 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:04.200 Destroyer again, because it does have some great two scenes there. 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:08.159 It has a reputation for being quite bad, but we 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:10.919 should revisit anyway. It had a tough act to follow, 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:14.040 for sure, but it has some some pretty wonderful magic 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.480 in it, as I recall, certainly really more overt, you know, 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:22.320 fantasy magic than what you find in the first film. Uh. Well, anyway, 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:25.480 this is making me wonder. Okay, bone armor real thing? 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:28.040 Did anybody ever actually try to wear armor made out 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:32.320 of bones? Well? You know, obviously there's some problems with 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:34.320 the idea. I mean, it would it would be ideal 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:39.240 if there was a slightly larger bipedal creature that had 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:42.560 bones and bone plates that were just already perfectly made 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:44.920 for someone to wear his armor. Uh. You know, I'm 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:47.280 sure we would hunt it to extinction. Uh in no 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:49.840 time but I don't know. I wonder if that's been 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:52.480 that idea has been explored in fantasy that's where all 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:57.840 the squatches went, so they were to extinction for their bones. Ah, yes, 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:02.399 the squatch skull makes such a great helm. Well in reality, uh, 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:04.600 you know, you know, there are probably some examples you 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:07.920 can come to where people are used utilizing bone ornamentation, 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:11.080 but in terms of using bone as like the primary 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:15.840 material and construction, I did run across a really cool example. Uh. 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:19.480 This is from a three thousand, nine hundred year old 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:23.120 suit of bone armor that was unearthed in Omsk, Siberia. 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:28.000 In and uh. In this example, and I encourage anyone 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:29.840 to look up an example of this. You'll find a 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:32.919 picture if you just look for bone armor OMPs that's O. M. 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:36.040 S k Uh. In this example, what we have is 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:39.800 basically a shirt of plate mail, but with each individual 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:44.399 plate carved from animal bone. And uh, you know, it 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:47.200 reminds me too of the sort of the ceremonial jade 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:51.200 armor that you see used in Chinese culture. Uh, where 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:54.000 nobody's wearing like just like the big obvious bones of 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:55.959 a creature, but you have all of these little plates 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:58.760 of bone that they are then stitched into this this 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:02.000 garment that is warned by the warrior. And this would 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:04.960 have been warned, the researchers point out, by a very 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:08.320 specialized warrior, a hero if you will, a prince of 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:12.679 the universe, if you will, yes, Well, do we know 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:15.399 exactly what the pros and cons of this type of 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:17.960 armor would have been if it involved bone? Like? Are 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:22.000 there like? How does that compare to standard materials? Do 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:25.119 do we know anything about that? About the it's durability? 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:27.800 I mean, I think this is something we we need 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:31.639 to explore and if a future like full on a 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:33.840 look at armor, which is something we've been talking about 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:37.280 wanting to do for a while. But I mean, basically, 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:41.000 we do see so many different approaches to armor in 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:44.680 different cultures, depending on available resources. You know. We we've 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:47.639 discussed in the past, Uh the Inca and how Inca 0:22:47.760 --> 0:22:52.280 armor depended so heavily on fiber, you know, and uh, 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:54.960 and it could apparently it was apparently quite effective in 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:57.760 their engagements. Uh. Certainly you get into cultures that have 0:22:57.800 --> 0:23:02.199 more access to uh the various metal working UH strategies 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:05.400 and you see the metal armor. Uh. This seems to 0:23:05.400 --> 0:23:07.800 to make sense though, because you would have a durable 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:11.960 material that would would augment whatever, you know, kind of 0:23:11.960 --> 0:23:16.760 like hide based armor. You're you're you're you're creating. Uh, 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:18.840 but it's gonna be it's gonna be lighter than using 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:21.359 little bits of stone. It's gonna be lighter than weighing 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:25.480