July/August 2021 Issue

AUSTRALIA: The boomerang may be Australia’s most recognizable cultural artifact. After being hurled, the crescent-shaped hardwood objects will, hypothetically, return to the thrower. While Aboriginal communities have been using boomerangs for hunting and fighting for millennia, new research indicates they had other purposes as well. Microscopic analysis of wear patterns on more than 100 boomerangs from sites across the continent suggests they were frequently used to shape stone tools. They could also have been used for making fire or playing music, or as digging implements.

SAUDI ARABIA: An aerial survey recorded more than 1,000 enigmatic rectangular complexes scattered throughout the deserts of northwest Saudi Arabia. First appearing around 7,000 years ago, these huge structures, known as mustatils, are among the earliest known large-scale stone monuments found anywhere, predating even Egypt’s pyramids and Stonehenge. Scholars are unsure why they were constructed, but suggest they were used for religious ceremonies, since the remains of horned animals, especially cattle, are known to have been ritually deposited within them.

SOUTH AFRICA: New dating of sediments from the Kalahari Desert’s Wonderwerk Cave suggests the shelter may be the oldest home ever inhabited by our human ancestors. Researchers believe the cave was occupied as long as 1.8 million years ago—the presence of hominins is indicated by the remains of primitive stone tools. Burned bone and ashes also found at the site may be the earliest known evidence of deliberate use of fire, around a million years ago.