Archaeologists have long believed that humans didn’t start crafting tools from bone until between 250,000 and 500,000 years ago. However, a 2018 excavation in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge turned up a cache of animal bone tools that have now been determined to be 1.5 million years old, pushing back the hominin tool technology timeline by more than one million years.

Made from elephant and hippo bones, the tools show distinct signs of being purposefully carved. This suggests that early humans had “more complex cognition” than experts believed and that they were capable of transferring their tool-making skills from stones to bones earlier than previously known.

Discovering The Animal Bone Tools At Olduvai Gorge In Tanzania

The discovery of the animal bone tools, as described in a new study published in Nature, took place in 2018 at Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge.

At the site—where some of the earliest stone tools made by early hominins have also been found—researchers came across a rich cache of 27 carved and sharpened animal bones. The bones came from elephants and hippos, with the large elephant bone tools measuring up to 16 inches long and the slightly smaller hippo bone tools reaching lengths of 12 inches.

The bones show considerable signs of wear. Researchers say that prehistoric humans chipped away small flakes to create a sharp edge, similar to how early humans made tools out of stones (a process that is much older, with the earliest known stone tools dating back 3.3 million years). This “knapping” process allowed them to shape the bones into hand tools.

Studying The Bone Tools

“The tools show evidence that their creators carefully worked the bones, chipping off flakes to create useful shapes,” study co-author Renata F. Peters of the University College London’s Institute of Archaeology explained in a statement. “We were excited to find these bone tools from such an early timeframe. It means that human ancestors were capable of transferring skills from stone to bone, a level of complex cognition that we haven’t seen elsewhere for another million years.”

Researchers Just Discovered The Identity Of The Model Featured In The Famous ‘Miss Atomic Bomb’ Photo From 1957

Unmasking a 70-Year Mystery

After a 25-year search, the Atomic Museum has finally discovered that the model pictured in the famous “Miss Atomic Bomb” photo was Anna Lee Mahoney, a dancer from New York who was working at Las Vegas’ Sands Hotel at the time the image was captured in 1957.

For the past 25 years, the Atomic Museum has been trying to ascertain the true identity of the woman in Don English’s famous 1957 photograph of a woman wearing a mushroom cloud swimsuit. Widely known as “Miss Atomic Bomb,” she had long been identified as a model named Lee Merlin—but, as it turns out, this was only a stage name.

As researcher and historian Robert Friedrichs revealed, Miss Atomic Bomb’s real name is Anna Lee Mahoney of the Bronx, New York. Finally, nearly 70 years after the iconic photograph was taken, the mystery of Lee Merlin’s true identity has been solved.

“‘Miss Atomic Bomb’ captured the imagination of a generation and became a global symbol of the Atomic Age,” Friedrichs said in a press release from the Atomic Museum. “To now put a name and story to her face is a tribute to the enduring cultural legacy of that extraordinary time in history.”

The Story Behind The Famous “Miss Atomic Bomb” Photograph

In the 1950s, Nevada was the main location for the U.S. military’s atomic bomb tests. A mere 45 miles from Las Vegas, President Harry Truman established a 680-square-mile atomic testing ground, but rather than living in fear of the deadly power of these weapons, business owners capitalized on the sensation and turned the tests into Vegas’ greatest show.

The so-called Atomic Age was in full swing, and atomic tourism was a major money-maker in Las Vegas. Crowds would buy tickets to watch the atomic tests from a relatively safe distance at viewing parties across the city. The aftereffects of the tests could be seen far and wide across the horizon, as mushroom-shaped clouds lingered high above the Nevada landscape.

In the midst of this atomic fever, photographer Don English asked a local showgirl from the Sands Hotel to pose for a picture while he had some downtime. He attached cotton to her bathing suit and shaped it to look like a mushroom cloud. Lee Merlin, as she was then known, threw her hands up and smiled, then English snapped the photo.

The iconic photograph was published on May 24, 1957, just a few days before the start of the Operation Plumbbob testing, and has remained well-known ever since. It is, in fact, one of the defining photographs of the era and was even featured on the cover of The Killers’ “Miss Atomic Bomb” single in 2012, once again bringing the photo into the cultural spotlight.

But although English credited the model in the photograph as Lee Merlin, uncovering more information about her proved to be difficult. What did eventually become clear is that Lee Merlin was only a stage name, and the woman’s real identity was a mystery.

It was only after more than two decades of research and investigation, aided by a professional detective agency, that Friedrichs found conclusive evidence linking two names to a single social security number: Lee Merlin and Anna Lee Mahoney.

Communication with a living relative and birth records further supported the connection, revealing that Mahoney used “Lee Merlin” as a stage name in Las Vegas. Now, the world finally knows more about the woman in this historic photograph.