Hunter-gatherers have a bit of a reputation when it comes to recycling. "Using all the animal", live in balance with nature; all that sort of stuff. In reality, this is something of a romanticisation. For example, Native Americans would sometimes drive entire herds of buffalo off a cliff. The resulting carnage would be too much for them to fully process, and dozens of carcasses would be left to rot. However, there were times hunter-gatherers lived up to their reputation. In the Spanish stone age, people were using recycling to help them make their cave art.
The last glacial maximum marked the peak of the ice age; when huge glaciers covered much of Europe. As this period came to an end, a group of people moved into Altamira Cave, in Spain. They only lived in the cave mouth, leaving behind a multitude of archaeological artefacts. However, they sometimes ventured further into the cave. There they created some of most incredible cave art ever discovered.
Making the art so deep in the cave raises a whole host of practical questions. Like how did these stone age people move all the supplies needed almost a kilometre underground? New research reveals they came up with a clever solution, recycling their rubbish into vital tools for the art making process.
Their thrifty solution starts at the coast. Altamira is only a few kilometers away from the coast, so seafood was a key part of their diet. Shellfish, in particular, were a favourite. Archaeologists found thousands of discarded shells in the mouth of the cave, where the people lived. However, many of these shells had strange markings on them.
It turns out these shells had a second life after their contents were consumed. The paint used to make these paintings comes from ochre. This is a natural pigment found in the rock, which means you have to find some way of extracting it. Enter the shells. Experiments have revealed these strange marks were the tell-tale sign of an object being used to "scratch" rocks; scraping out this valuable ochre. Ten minutes work scraping a rock with discarded shells could yield upwards of 3 grams of pigment. However, this effectiveness comes at a price. The shells blunted quickly.
However, even these blunt shells may have served a process. As I mentioned, most of these shells come from the mouth of the cave. This indicates the ochre wasn't made where it was used. How to move this pigment further underground? Use the shells again! Some have been intensely stained. Previous researchers have claimed this as evidence of the shells being used as "palettes" to transport the pigment further underground.
In short, the shells from Altamira could have been used three times. First as food, then as a tool, then as a container. Such intensive recycling would put Greenpeace to shame. It was clearly sustainable. Reusing shells like this was a trick that lasted for 9,000 years.
Reference
Cuenca-Solana, D., Gutiérrez-Zugasti, I., Ruiz-Redondo, A., González-Morales, M.R., Setién, J., Ruiz-Martínez, E., Palacio-Pérez, E., de las Heras-Martín, C., Prada-Freixedo, A. and Lasheras-Corruchaga, J.A., 2016. Painting Altamira Cave? Shell tools for ochre-processing in the Upper Palaeolithic in northern Iberia. Journal of Archaeological Science.
