480,000-year-old elephant bone tool from Boxgrove is the oldest discovered in Europe Archaeologists have identified a tool dating to around 500,000 years ago made from elephant bone, at the Boxgrove site in southern England, which presents the oldest known tool made of elephant bone in Europe. The fragment, with dimensions reaching 11 cm in length, 6 cm in width, and 3 cm in thickness, shows signs of having been used repeatedly as a soft hammer for refining stone tools. Analysis using 3D scanning and electron microscopy revealed embedded flint fragments and impact marks, which indicate it was used as a retoucher, a tool used to resharpen and shape stone handaxes and other items made of flint...