Ancient engravings rewrite human history »

An international team of scientists has discovered the earliest known engravings from human ancestors on a 400,000 year-old fossilised shell from Java. The discovery is the earliest known example of ancient humans deliberately creating pattern. "It rewrites human history," said Dr Stephen Munro from the School of Archaeology and Anthropology. "This is the first time we have found evidence for Homo erectus behaving this way," he said. The newly discovered engravings resemble the previously oldest-known engravings, which are associated with either Neanderthals or modern humans from around 100,000 years ago. The early date and the location of the discovery in Java discount the possibility that the engravings could have been the work of Neanderthals or modern humans. "It puts these large bivalve shells and the tools used to engrave them, into the hands of Homo erectus , and will change the way we think about this early human species," Dr Munro said.