Ancient humans, to us,seem like a very distant past that we can hardly relate to. But even though they might have lived hundreds of thousands of years ago, sometimes, they still surprise useventoday.
In fact,as one Redditor shared, such a surprise can be waiting right in your home.This person was visiting their parents’ recently renovated home when,inthe newly placed travertine floor,they noticed something resembling a humanjawbone, which led to an investigation with some very interesting results.Scroll down to read the full story!
More info:Reddit
Ancient humans might have lived a long time ago, but from time to time, they still impact our daily lives
Image credits:Kidipadeli75
A person was visiting their parents when, while checking out their recently renovated home, they noticed something in their travertine floor
When they took a closer look, they realized that it looked a lot like part of a human jawbone, so they decided to post their discovery online
The person’s story went viral, and soon,theywere collaborating with various teams of experts to try to remove the tile and get it analyzed
The OP recently went to ther/fossilssubreddit with a couple of pictures,looking for help identifying whateverit wasthey found in theirparents’home.
While someone else might’ve easily looked over it, the poster, who works as a dentist and spends most of his days fixing human teeth, noticed something familiar imprinted in the newly placed travertine floorthat theparents got as a part of their homeredecoration.
The person guessed that it might be a mandible,which isa mammal’s lower jawbone, that had previously belonged to an ancient human ancestor, and, as it turned out, their guess wasquiteaccurate.
Image credits:Emmanuel Cassar (not the actual photo)
Discoveries like these are amazing, but if one isn’t educated inthe fields ofpaleontology and archeology, chances are they might miss a lot ofstuff about it. To ensure that we don’twalk pastany interesting details,Bored Pandareached out to an archeologist,Annelise Baer.
The archeologist saidthat peopleare often ready to spendbigsums of money on marble or stone with guaranteed fossils. However, shewas hesitantto assign a value to the OP’s discovery, as it may encourage looting and the sale of antiquities on the black market.
“The real value is what it can tell us about this specific person and what our hominid ancestors were doing in this part of Turkey, potentially filling in some gaps in our knowledge of human evolution and migration,” continued Annelise, telling us how just the teeth found in this mandible could potentially tell us details about where that individual was born, grew up, their age, and even what they ate.
If youdocome across something like this or any other archeologicaldiscovery, the expert agrees that the best way to handle it is to do what the OP did. “Post it on Reddit! Sharing something like this on a platform like Reddit or Twitter is a fantastic way to reach a global audience and get in touch with experts. Archaeologists and anthropologists are all huge nerds, and we love stuff like this.”
In the end,we could say thateverything leaves its mark.Someof itmay remain unnoticed for a very long time or not be found at all. But every once in a while, sometimesasaccidentally as it happened for the OP, we discover a little piece ofhistoryhidden in plain sight that can ultimately lead to big revelations.And who could say that thisis notexciting?
Thanks! Check out the results:
Curiosities
