Nasal piercings 44,000 years of ancient Aboriginal Australia

Handmade 13cm long bone fragment, originating about 44,000 years ago found in Australia has many characteristics like modern nose piercings.

Sue O'Connor, from the Australian National University, found a sophisticated artifact , 13cm long and originated around 44,000 BC in a cave in the Kimberley, Western Australia, and New Scientist regions on 18 / 11 reports. Its shape is like a piercings piercing the nasal septum, so this may be the world's oldest man-made bone jewelry .

O'Connor's colleague Michelle Langley used a microscope to analyze artifacts. The results showed that the red marks and scratches on the side of the object were created by stone tools.

Handmade bone fragments are found in Australia.(Photo: Michelle Langley).

After comparing it with sewing needles and jewelry made from indigenous nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the team believes that the bone is more like a jewelry than a tool. Cracks in artifacts are consistent with the assumption that a strong push and twist action has caused the tip to break, possibly when it is pierced through the human nasal septum. The shape and staining of ocher and this style is very similar to modern bone nose piercings.

Techniques for making crafts from original bones developed in Africa. The first people to Australia may have brought this technique and changed it to fit the animal bones here. Kangaroo bones are very hard, strong and easy to penetrate, so they are used instead of horns and ivory.

"This finding is important because it gives us information about the first residents in Australia," Langley said.

In the past, very rare ancient bone tools and jewelry were found in Australia, leading to the hypothesis that indigenous peoples initially forgot the skills they brought from Africa.

"Handmade bone fragments, whether used as nose piercings or sewing needles, all prove that the first residents of Australia were also able to perform complicated actions like others", Ian Lilley, University Queensland, comment.