Oldest engraving rewrites view of human history

Anthropologists say they have found the earliest engraving in human history on a fossilized mollusk shell about 500,000 years old, unearthed in colonial-era Indonesia.

The zigzag scratching, together with evidence that these shells were used as tools, should prompt a rethink about the mysterious early human called Homo erectus, they said.

The discovery comes from new scrutiny of 166 freshwater mussel shells found at Trinil, on the banks of the Bengawan Solo river in East Java, where one of the most sensational finds in fossil hunting was made.