Monday, August 25, 2014

Humans recycle at least 13,000 years

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Recycling can seem like an invention of recent decades, but a recent discovery indicates that this process has existed for at least 13,000 years. A discovery in Molí del Salt, in Tarragona, in Spain, indicates that prehistoric humans reciclavam their possessions since the Upper Paleolithic.

The discovery, published in the Journal of Archaelogical Science, scientists have identified tools that were altered after they have been designed for a specific purpose, which indicates that these tools were recycled for another purpose after having served to perform initial function.

"To identify recycling is necessary to differentiate two sequential levels of handling a subject: the moment before it is changed and the time thereafter. The two are separated by an interval in which the object is subject to change, "explains Manuel Vaquero, researcher of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, cites the Inhabitat. "This is the first time a systematic study of this type has been made", adds the researcher.

Research indicates that although the specialized tools, such as the implements of hunting, have never been made from recycled materials, other objects of daily life were created for one purpose only and when this purpose was fulfilled were converted to suppress other needs.

This recycling capacity of humans in Paleolithic have been developed due to the need to preserve the existing resources and allow savings of time and energy, using tools that were already made. Researchers will further indicate that prehistoric humans "may have even moved large objects from the source location".

Scientists reveal that the identification of recycled objects was made possible through the examination of artifacts burned which show when an item was modified after its original function.

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