Collecting keepsakes may have helped autobiographical memory evolve in early humans, study suggests

ByMIRIAM SELA-EITAMNOVEMBER 13, 2026 08:47

Early humans may have been collecting keepsakes to help remember locations and events as far back as half a million years, a new Israeli study suggests.

The study, recently published in the journal Evolutionary Anthropology, studied collections of various objects found at prehistoric sites across northern and central Israel.

It was led by Dr. Yoav Ram of Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology, Prof. Ran Barkai and Dr. Ella Assaf of the Department of Archaeology, in collaboration with Prof. Liad Mudrik of the School of Psychological Sciences, and Dr. Bar Efrati of the University of Oxford.

While these collections seemingly served no practical purpose for their owners, the study suggests they may have been kept as personal keepsakes, reminding owners of places they had visited or experiences they’d had.

Combining archaeological findings with insights from evolutionary theory, psychology and neuroscience, researchers argue that the practice of collecting keepsakes may have also influenced the evolution of autobiographical memory.

Examples of early collections include small, colorful pebbles brought from several locations to Qesem Cave; flint tools at Qesem Cave, Revadim, and Jaljulia; and handaxes fashioned from flint pieces containing fossils or unusual geological formations in the Sakhnin Valley.

Qesem Cave is a Lower Paleolithic archaeological site located near Kafr Kassem in central Israel, and is believed to have been occupied by early humans from about 400,000 to about 200,000 years ago.

In a study published earlier this year on the axes found in Sakhnin, Barkai noted that the large number of tools that were decorated and shaped around fossils and geodes exceeded all comparable finds of similar artifacts documented to date.

“The unique landscape of the Sakhnin Valley led early humans to behave in a distinctive manner,” Barkai said in the earlier study. “The integration of fossils and geological features endowed the handaxes with added potency and meaning, connecting them to primeval elements.”

Of the artifacts found at Revadim, Jaljulia, and Qesem Cave, researchers noted that the tools had been collected after their surfaces had changed over time.

Some of the flint tools had been resharpened, but most of their original surfaces and traces of earlier workmanship were preserved. Researchers suggested that the tools’ aged appearance might have also held value to those who kept them.

How did keepsakes help the evolution of memory?

According to the study, keepsakes from particular locations could later trigger memories of personal experiences the owner had there.

The object’s appearance and texture may have also helped its owner distinguish between an event they experienced firsthand and a story they had heard from others or imagined.

Over many generations, the researchers suggested, the use of keepsakes could have increased evolutionary pressures on the brain mechanisms responsible for determining the source and reliability of a memory.

In this way, material culture and neurobiology influenced one another and contributed to the evolution of autobiographical memory.

Collecting keepsakes may have emerged due to environmental changes

In the current study, Barkai suggested the practice may have emerged at the time due to significant environmental changes.

“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,” explained Barkai. “Objects taken from these places may have helped them maintain a personal connection with the places that would henceforth provide their livelihood.”

The authors emphasized that this theory is a hypothesis, rather than proof that every unusual stone found at prehistoric sites was a keepsake.

Nevertheless, the archaeological record shows that objects associated with memories have accompanied humans from half a million years ago to the present day, making it reasonable to assume that this behavior likely affected human evolution.

“When early humans brought a colorful stone or an old tool they had found in the landscape back to their cave, that object may have helped them remember a significant event or encounter for the rest of their lives,” Ram concluded.

“In this way, keepsakes may have become a kind of ‘external memory device,’ supporting the evolution of brain mechanisms responsible for autobiographical memory, which is so characteristic of us as humans and so important in shaping our identity.”

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