When an abstract-looking ivory artifact emerged from the Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany in 2015, archaeologists didn’t know quite what to make of it. Previously, this same cave had yielded what may be the world’s oldest musical flutes, as well as one of humanity’s earliest pieces of figurative art, the iconic Venus of Hohle Fels. At first glance, the strange new discovery—a nearly eight-inch rod perforated with four small holes—seemed comparatively unspectacular. But it has since revealed far more about the lives of Europe’s prehistoric hunter-gatherers than its unassuming appearance might have suggested.

Fashioned from the tusk of a mammoth more than 35,000 years ago, this baton—a type of artifact called a lochstab—was initially interpreted as a symbolic object associated with prestige or power. But Nicholas Conard, whose team discovered the item, wasn’t so sure.