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 us even today.
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, in the newly placed travertine floor, they noticed something resembling a human jawbone, 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
Image credits: Kidipadeli75
Image credits: Kidipadeli75
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
Image credits: Kidipadeli75
Image credits: Kidipadeli75
The person's story went viral, and soon, they were collaborating with various teams of experts to try to remove the tile and get it analyzed
Image credits: Kidipadeli75
Image credits: Kidipadeli75
The OP recently went to the r/fossils subreddit with a couple of pictures, looking for help identifying whatever it was they found in their parents' 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 floor that the parents got as a part of their home redecoration.
The person guessed that it might be a mandible, which is a mammal's lower jawbone, that had previously belonged to an ancient human ancestor, and, as it turned out, their guess was quite accurate.
It didn't take long for the post to go viral. Many people with various levels of knowledge in the field took over the comments, suggesting their explanations for what it is and how it got there, as well as asking additional questions that could help clear things up.
In the update the OP wrote themselves and in a couple of TikToks by allizsin, a few additional things were explained, including that the quarry where their parents got the travertine was located in Turkey and that since the first post, they had been contacted by several world-class teams of paleoarcheologists, who attempted to remove the tile with the OP and get it analyzed in a lab.
Image credits: Emmanuel Cassar (not the actual photo)
Discoveries like these are amazing, but if one isn't educated in the fields of paleontology and archeology, chances are they might miss a lot of stuff about it. To ensure that we don't walk past any interesting details, Bored Panda reached out to an archeologist, Annelise Baer.
Annelise has been curious about archeology since she was 8, and that interest has been her driver ever since, pushing her to get a master's degree in this field and later combine it with her experience in TV production. At the same time, she also creates educational content on Instagram and TikTok, correcting false facts and educating the internet about some fascinating information that might otherwise elude us rather easily.
The expert began by explaining that the chances of finding something like this are low but not zero, as any material made from once organic materials can contain inclusions. "Usually, these are just other minerals, but there can often be fossils, and there's definitely been a history of travertine containing not just the usual assortment of smaller fossils but hominids as well."
The archeologist said that people are often ready to spend big sums of money on marble or stone with guaranteed fossils. However, she was hesitant to 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 you do come across something like this or any other archeological discovery, 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 that everything leaves its mark. Some of it may remain unnoticed for a very long time or not be found at all. But every once in a while, sometimes as accidentally as it happened for the OP, we discover a little piece of history hidden in plain sight that can ultimately lead to big revelations. And who could say that this is not exciting?
What did you think about this story? Have you ever discovered or heard of someone discovering something similar? Tell us all about it in the comments below!
The commenters were very intrigued by this discovery, and those with some related expertise offered various explanations for what it might be
