Rosa Rubicondior: Creationism Refuted - An Elephant Bone Tool from 470,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Thursday, 22 January 2026

Creationism Refuted - An Elephant Bone Tool from 470,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Map of Lower Paleolithic sites with published elephant-bone tools.

Simon A. Parfitt, Silvia M. Bello (2026).

Ancient humans made elephant bone tools in Europe half a million years ago | Natural History Museum

The problems for creationists deepened today with news that two scientists, Simon Parfitt of the UCL Institute of Archaeology and a Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum, London, and Silvia M. Bello of the Natural History Museum, have discovered an elephant bone tool dating from roughly half a million years ago — the oldest such tool discovered in Europe, from a time before anatomically modern hominins had left Africa. They published their findings in Science Advances.

Of course, most creationists will be blissfully unaware of this discovery, as with all such archaeology, because there is no point in being a creationist if you are going to read the latest scientific discoveries. How is that going to help you cling to patently absurd beliefs despite all the evidence against you? Best just ignore it and dismiss it all as some sort of Satanic conspiracy aimed at making you show weakness and change your mind.

Nevertheless, the fact is that this elephant bone tool exists and has been dated to about 490,000 years before creationism’s favourite book of Bronze Age superstitions says Earth existed. It was used by archaic hominins, probably to sharpen dulled flint tools by gently knapping the cutting edges. It was discovered at Boxgrove, Kent, England, in the early 1990s but was not recognised as a tool until recently, when finds from the Boxgrove site were studied in detail using new technology such as 3D scans and scanning electron microscopy, which revealed impact notches with embedded flint fragments.

Bone, being softer than flint, would have been the material of choice for work where precision was important, and elephant bone, with its hard outer layer of compact bone making it more durable, would have been the bone of choice. However, elephants and mammoths were rare in what is now southern England 500,000 years ago, so these tools would have been valuable objects.

It is not clear which archaic hominins used these tools in southern England, but at 500,000 years ago it was probably one of the ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans, which form the “muddle in the middle” of the human evolutionary story. Here the problem is not a lack of fossils but an abundance of them, showing varying mixtures of primitive and derived features typical of transitional species, coming somewhere between Homo erectus and Neanderthals. Candidates are H. heidelbergensis and H. antecessor.

The stone tools from Boxgrove are part of the widespread Acheulean technology, which originated in East Africa about 1.95 million years ago and spread across Africa and into western Eurasia after about 1.5 million years ago, persisting until between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago.

Background^ The Acheulean Stone Tool Tradition. The Acheulean is one of the longest-lasting and most widespread stone-tool traditions in human prehistory. It first appeared in East Africa about 1.95 million years ago, probably developed by early members of the genus Homo, such as Homo erectus and Homo ergaster. Its defining feature is the production of large, deliberately shaped tools — especially handaxes, cleavers and picks — made by carefully flaking stone from both sides to produce symmetrical cutting edges.

From its African origins, Acheulean technology spread widely as early hominins dispersed out of Africa. By around 1.5 million years ago it had reached parts of the Middle East, and over the following hundreds of thousands of years it extended into South Asia and western Eurasia, including much of Europe. Classic Acheulean sites include Olduvai Gorge and Konso in Africa, Ubeidiya in Israel, Isampur in India, and Boxgrove in southern England.

The Acheulean represents a major cognitive and technological advance over earlier Oldowan tools. Its makers showed planning ability, manual dexterity and an appreciation of form, producing tools that were not merely functional but often strikingly symmetrical. Experimental archaeology shows that Acheulean handaxes were versatile implements, used for butchery, woodworking, hide processing and plant preparation.

Remarkably, Acheulean technology persisted for well over a million years, remaining in use until between about 200,000 and 100,000 years ago, when it was gradually replaced in many regions by more specialised Middle Palaeolithic industries, such as the Mousterian. Its immense longevity and wide geographical spread testify to both its effectiveness and the deep evolutionary roots of human technological culture.

The discovery by the UCL/Natural History Museum team is the subject of a Natural History Museum news item by James Ashworth.

Ancient humans made elephant bone tools in Europe half a million years ago
One of the world’s oldest tools made from elephant bone has been discovered in the UK.

The extraordinary hammer offers new insight into the lives of ancient humans living in southern England 480,000 years ago, revealing their skill in crafting a wide range of tools.
An ancient tool is reshaping our understanding of Europe’s early inhabitants.

Discovered during excavations at Boxgrove in West Sussex, the ancient hammer is among the oldest elephant bone tools ever found. Dated to 480,000 years ago, it’s more than 30,000 years older than any similar artefact in Europe.

Ancient humans, possibly Homo heidelbergensis or the Neanderthals, were using this tool long before our species reached Britain. The hammer would have been used to sharpen handaxes and other stone tools as Boxgrove’s residents butchered a wide variety of animals including giant deer, horses and rhinos.

The skill required to make and use such a tool shows that these people had real foresight, an ability essential for planning their hunts and other complex activities. Simon Parfitt, one of our Scientific Associates, says that the hammer is a testament to their ingenuity.

This remarkable discovery showcases the resourcefulness of our ancient relatives. They possessed not only a deep knowledge of the local materials around them, but also a sophisticated understanding of how to craft highly refined stone tools. Elephant bone would have been a rare but highly useful resource, and it’s likely this was a tool of considerable value.

Simon A. Parfitt, lead author
Institute of Archaeology
University College London
London, UK.
And Centre for Human Evolution Research
Natural History Museum,
London, UK.

The findings of the discovery were published in the journal Science Advances.

The tool was originally excavated at Boxgrove in the 1990s.
© Boxgrove Project, UCL

How was Boxgrove’s elephant bone hammer used?

First excavated in the 1970s, the site at Boxgrove quickly became one of the most important places in the world for understanding how ancient humans lived half a million years ago. Among the discoveries made at the site are the earliest human remains in the UK, the oldest bone tools in Europe and thousands of butchered animal remains.

Among these finds was what at first appeared to be a nondescript fragment of elephant bone. The triangular object measures around 11 centimetres long and six centimetres wide, and researchers initially thought it might have broken off while an elephant carcass was being butchered, possibly when its bones were smashed to extract the marrow inside.

However, a recent reanalysis of the bones showed that this was in fact an extraordinarily rare tool that had been carefully shaped from a thick layer of bone. Its density and thickness suggests that it must have been made from either a straight-tusked elephant or mammoth – but there’s not enough evidence to determine which.
~ Dr Silvia Bello, one of our human evolution researchers, says that the tool would have been used as a retoucher. This is a type of hammer used to break off parts of the cutting edge of flint tools to keep them sharp. Elephant bone would have been well-suited for this role.

While hammerstones are often used to start shaping stone tools, organic materials are used for more precise working. Softer substances like elephant bone and antlers have a more elastic structure than rock, making it easier to control the stone-working process. Small pieces of the flint edges this tool was being used to sharpen are embedded in the bone, confirming its use as a retoucher.

Silvia M. Bello, co-author.
Centre for Human Evolution Research
Natural History Museum
London, UK.

Discoveries at Boxgrove, such as the oldest physical evidence of humans in Britain, continue to change our understanding of prehistoric life.
© The Trustees of The Natural History Museum, London.

A window into the past

The hammer offers an invaluable insight into the lives of people half a million years ago.

Elephant bone is rare at Boxgrove, with no other pieces found in the immediate area surrounding the retoucher. This suggests that Boxgrove’s inhabitants recognised the benefits of elephant bone and then made it into tools they could carry around.

This is a really special insight into their lives. It shows that these ancient humans were capable of planning ahead and weren’t just grabbing what came to hand. The retoucher shows signs of being shaped and used while the bone was still fresh, suggesting that these humans knew that elephant bone was a great material for this. As soon as the opportunity came up, they took it.

Silvia M. Bello.

As the pattern of impacts on the bone are grouped together in certain areas it suggests that the retoucher was used many times to sharpen flint tools. However, it only seems to have been used for a relatively short amount of time.

We don’t know why this tool was abandoned. It was still usable when it was lost, so it wasn’t thrown away after being broken. It’s possible that it was accidentally lost, and that its owner was never able to find it again. Alternatively, it might have been discarded intentionally – but why such a useful object would have been left behind is a mystery.

Silvia M. Bello.

The team hope to uncover more of Boxgrove’s mysteries as they continue to pore through its artefacts, looking for more evidence that could change what we know about our distant relatives.

Publication:
Simon A. Parfitt, Silvia M. Bello
The earliest elephant-bone tool from Europe: An unexpected raw material for precision knapping of Acheulean handaxes. Sci. Adv. 12, eady1390 (2026). DOI:10.1126/sciadv.ady1390

Abstract
Organic knapping tools made from bone, antler, and wood were essential to early human toolkits but are rarely preserved in the archeological record. The earliest known soft hammers, dating to ~480,000 years ago, come from Boxgrove (UK), where modified antlers and large mammal bones were used alongside flint hard hammers. These tools facilitated complex knapping techniques, such as platform preparation and tranchet flake removal, contributing to the production of finely worked ovate handaxes typical of the Boxgrove Acheulean industry. This study presents a cortical bone fragment from an elephant, deliberately shaped into a percussor for resharpening flint tools. It represents the earliest known use of elephant bone in Europe and the first documented case of its use as a knapping hammer. Reconstructing its life history offers further insights into Middle Pleistocene hominin technological adaptations, resourcefulness, and survival strategies that enabled humans to endure harsh northern environments.

Fig. 1. Map of Lower Paleolithic sites with published elephant-bone tools.
While bone tools from several sites have been studied using technological, taphonomic, and use-wear analyses, others remain more enigmatic—such as the minute, chipped ivory objects from Medzhibozh A (Ukraine) and the polished ivory from Schöningen (Germany), as well as more controversial cases where identification is based solely on morphology—often at sites lacking associated lithic artifacts, such as Baishiyi (China). At other sites, including Torralba and Ambrona, the interpretation of modified elephant bones as tools has also been questioned (see table S1 for details).

Fig. 2. Location maps.
(A) Location of Boxgrove in relation to the Goodwood-Slindon (40 m) Raised Beach. (B) Extent of quarrying at Boxgrove and the principal archeological sites (red).

Fig. 3. Handaxe from the Boxgrove paleosol horizon (locality Q2/GTP 17).

Fig. 5. Elephant-bone tool (NHMUK PV UNREG 4339) from intertidal deposits at the Boxgrove Waterhole Site (Q1/B).
(A) Photographs and (B) three-dimensional (3D) surface model images. The outer cortical surface shows indentations resulting from its use as a flint-knapping tool. Side views illustrate the invasive flaking of the cortical surface. See figs. S1 and S2 for other views. (C) Scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs of features inflicted during use as a knapping tool, including microstriations and embedded flint chips (examples highlighted by dashed ovals), alongside evidence of postdepositional bioerosion. Patches of fine sand and silt adhere to the surface, filling, or partially obscuring depressions.

Copyright of the Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.

Fig. 6. Postmortem modifications.
Cortical surface showing breakage planes (Edges A and C), flake scars 1 to 3, anthropic linear incisions (in blue), and embedded flint fragments (in red, circled in black). Knapping marks are concentrated in three areas (areas 1 to 3). See figs. S3 to S5 for additional images of the surface features.
Copyright of the Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.

Fig. 7. Details of surface modifications.
(A to D) Photographs of battered areas of the elephant cortical bone, showing the distribution of the pits and scores, which are clustered in three areas: (B) area 1 (left) and area 2 (right); (C) area 3; (D) close-up of area 2. The oblique incisions visible in (C) marked by arrows cross areas 1 and 3, where they are truncated by pits and scores. (E) 3D surface model showing the unmodified texture of the cortical surface intersected by pits and scores. Scale divisions in millimeters.

Copyright of the Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.

Fig. 8. Scores, pits, and embedded flint chips in areas 1 and 2.
Features illustrated with 3D surface models (A to C) and SEM micrographs (D to J). Arrows indicate the smallest microchips. For embedded flint chips, the smallest examples are indicated by arrows (A). SEM micrographs [(G) and (I)] and EDX/SEM images [(H) and (J)] of flint chips (red: silicon) embedded in bone (blue: calcium). Gray areas in the EDX images are zones hidden (shadowed) from the detector.
Copyright of the Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.

Fig. 9. Reconstruction illustrating the use of the elephant-bone knapping hammer to resharpen the edge of a handaxe.

Fig. 10. “Life history” of the elephant-bone tool.
Schematic diagram illustrating the stages in the manufacture and use of the elephant bone knapping tool, from obtaining the blank and shaping it to create an effective hammer for resharpening lithic tools to its eventual discard or loss. The diagram also highlights the by-products (bone flakes and knapping debris) generated at each stage, which contribute to an archeologically identifiable signature. See fig. S7 for a schematic of the modification stages identified on the elephant-bone tool.

As with so many such discoveries, this elephant bone tool from Boxgrove is not an isolated curiosity but part of a long, coherent and increasingly detailed picture of human technological evolution. It sits neatly alongside the Acheulean stone tools from the same site and the wider archaeological record showing that archaic hominins were capable of planning, material selection and fine motor control hundreds of thousands of years before the emergence of our own species. There is nothing ad hoc or mysterious about it — just the cumulative result of incremental innovation, cultural transmission and practical problem-solving by evolving human populations.

For creationists, this is yet another awkward piece of evidence that refuses to fit into a Bronze Age origin story. A carefully shaped elephant bone tool used by archaic hominins half a million years ago is not something that can be waved away as “just interpretation” without also discarding the entire scientific framework that makes sense of the geological context, the dating, the wear patterns and the technological continuity with other tools. Doing so would require rejecting not just evolutionary biology, but archaeology, physics, chemistry and materials science as well.

More fundamentally, this discovery undermines the creationist habit of treating human technological sophistication as something that appeared suddenly and fully formed. Instead, it shows a deep evolutionary history of experimentation with materials and techniques, long before anatomically modern humans appeared. The idea that intelligence, skill and innovation emerged in a single magical moment is contradicted by a record that shows gradual refinement stretching back millions of years.

And, as ever, the researchers involved show no sign of the crippling doubt about evolution that creationists insist must exist among scientists. On the contrary, they interpret what they have found squarely within the framework of evolutionary continuity and hominin dispersal, because that framework works — it explains the evidence, predicts what else we should find, and is repeatedly confirmed as new discoveries like this one come to light. Creationism, by contrast, explains nothing, predicts nothing and survives only by ignoring, dismissing or misrepresenting discoveries that are inconvenient to its theology.

Another problem deepens. Another escape route quietly closes.

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