35,000-Year-Old Ivory Workshop Unearthed in Germany
Archaeologists excavating the mammoth hunting site of Breitenbach in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, have discovered what they say is the oldest ivory workshop ever found.
First excavated in the 1920’s, the Breitenbach site covers some 6,000 sq. meters and dates back to about 33,000 BCE (Upper Paleolithic).
During the 2012 season, archaeologists from the MONREPOS Archaeological Research Center and Museum for Human Behavioral Evolution led by Dr Olaf Jöris and Dr Tim Matthies have investigated 70 sq. meters of the site.
The interesting part is the spatial patterning of the activity areas, such that they were doing specific tasks in restricted areas. Plus, I wonder if the larger scale nature of it had anything to do with trade?
