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    "headline": "Early humans in Israel may have kept keepsakes 500,000 years ago; colorful stones as memory aids",
    "description": "Early humans at Qesem Cave and other sites in Israel may have kept stones and old tools as keepsakes, Tel Aviv University researchers propose.",
    "datePublished": "2026-11-11T15:33:00+00:00",
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    "articleSection": "Science",
    "keywords": "Qesem Cave, Ran Barkai, Tel Aviv University, Yoav Ram",
    "articleBody": "The urge to pocket a pebble from a beach may be half a million years old. Tel Aviv University researchers argue in the journal Evolutionary Anthropology that early humans in what is now Israel carried home colorful stones, fossil-bearing flint and weathered old tools as keepsakes, and that those objects helped shape the evolution of personal memory. Their idea is that a stone picked up at a hunting ground could later bring that day back to mind. Over many generations, the authors suggest, leaning on such objects may have put pressure on the brain to keep track of where a memory came from and how far to trust it. The objects behind the idea The team, Yoav Ram of the university’s School of Zoology and archaeologists Ran Barkai and Ella Assaf, working with psychologist Liad Mudrik and Bar Efrati of Oxford University, pulled together finds from several Israeli sites. At Qesem Cave, a site occupied from roughly 420,000 to 220,000 years ago, small colorful pebbles were brought in from different places but show no sign of practical use. In the Sakhnin Valley, handaxes were knapped from flint containing fossils or odd geological features, sometimes with the feature left in the middle of the tool where it could be seen and touched. At Revadim, Jaljulia and Qesem Cave, people collected flint tools that were already old, their surfaces changed by time, then resharpened them while keeping most of the original surface and earlier workmanship. The authors read the aged look of those recycled tools as part of their appeal. In a sense, the object carried its own story. From souvenirs to a sense of self The study blends archaeology with evolutionary theory, psychology and neuroscience. Its central claim is about autobiographical memory, the ability to stitch personal experiences into one continuous life story. A keepsake, the researchers propose, could help its owner tell apart something they lived through from something they only heard about or imagined. Shown to others, it might also make a personal account more believable. That matters in groups that depend on remembering who met whom, what was given and which places belonged to whom. In the authors’ view, trusted personal memory supports cooperation and helps build trust. Barkai links the timing to a change in diet. “The disappearance of large animals, particularly elephants, required early humans to develop new hunting methods and become familiar with hunting grounds inhabited by animals such as fallow deer and wild cattle,” he said. Fallow deer make up about three-quarters of the identified bones at Qesem Cave, according to the cave’s published record, which fits that picture. Our earlier report on what killed off the ice-age giants covers the wider loss of big game. Limits This is a hypothesis paper, not a new excavation or experiment, and the authors say so directly: it is not proof that every unusual stone was a keepsake. There is no way to interview a person from 400,000 years ago about why they kept a pebble. Other explanations for odd objects, from curiosity to play, remain open, and the brain-evolution link is an argument from fit, not a measured effect. A quick timeline About 500,000 years ago: the habit of keeping meaningful objects begins, by the authors’ estimate. About 420,000 to 220,000 years ago: Qesem Cave is occupied. November 9, 2026: Tel Aviv University announces the study. Objects that carry meaning keep turning up in the record, such as the meteorite-iron pieces in Spain’s Treasure of Villena. Ram’s summary of the new idea: keepsakes may have become a kind of “external memory device.” Further reading Wikipedia: Qesem Cave Barkai et al. 2026, Evolutionary Anthropology Image: 66AVI, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.",
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