Early upper Paleolithic unshaped bone tools from the southern chamber of Denisova cave

During the excavations in 2017, several bone artifacts were found in the Southern Chamber of Denisova Cave. The tools from layer 11 provide new evidence for the use of bone for technical purposes during the Early Upper Paleolithic. All tools are unshaped, produced by percussion, and were used without modifications of the surface and volume of the blanks. They can be identified as tools mostly from the traces of wear, such as axial or edge damages, compactions, rounding, pits, or striations, which resulted from the repeated contact between the bone and the processed material. Such type of tools also occurs in the Middle Paleolithic layers and may reveal the continuity of the early traditions.