Palaeolithic wooden artefacts from the Abric Romani (Capellades, Barcelona, Spain)

Abstract

Shaped wooden objects were recovered, interstratified between travertine plaques, in the Late Pleistocene sequence of the Romani rockshelter. Associated flint tools show edgewear indicative of woodworking. The dates of the bracketing travertines, determined by the Uranium-series method, are between 45,000 and 49,000 years bp. These wooden artefacts, resembling domestic implements are, so far, unique in the Palaeolithic record. They suggest the existence of a complex wooden technology used by early Homo sapiens and very rarely preserved in archaeological deposits. © 1992.