Bone tool

Any part of the skeleton can potentially be utilized; however, antlers and long bones provide some of the best working material. Long bone fragments can be shaped, by scraping against an abrasive stone, into such items as arrow and spear points, needles, awls, and fish hooks. Other bone tools include spoons, knives, pins, needles, flakers, hide scrapers, and reamers.

Musical rasps, flutes, and whistles, as well as toys, have been made of bone. Decoratively carved articles of bone were also made, such as hair combs, hair pins, and pendants. Beyond the skeleton, teeth were drilled and used for decoration on clothing and necklaces. Hooves were also drilled and used as decorations on clothing, and strung as rattles and bells.

As an organic material, bone often does not survive in a way that is archaeologically recoverable. However, under the right conditions, bone tools do sometimes survive and have been recovered from locations around the world representing time periods throughout history and prehistory. Many examples have been collected ethnographically, and some traditional peoples, as well as experimental archaeologists, continue to use bone to make tools.

History

The oldest excavated bone tools are from Africa and date to about 1.5 million years ago. It is widely accepted that they appeared and developed in Africa before any other geographic region. A very famous excavation of bone tools is the one at Blombos Cave in South Africa. A collection of twenty-eight bone tools was recovered from seventy thousand-year-old Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave. Careful analyses of these tools reveal that formal production methods were used to create awls and projectile points.

Bone tools have been discovered in the context of Neanderthal groups and throughout the development of anatomically modern humans. Archaeologists have long believed that Neanderthals learned how to make bone tools from modern humans and by mimicking stone tools, viewing bone as simply another raw material. Modern humans, on the other hand, took advantage of bone's properties and worked it into specific shapes and tools.

A recent discovery of specialized bone tools at two Neanderthal sites in southwestern France suggests that Neanderthals may have taught modern humans how to make them. The discovery of lissoirs ("polishing stones") at these sites is significant, as they are about 51,000 years old, predating the known arrival of modern humans in Europe.

Before the Industrial Revolution (when machine mass production of sharp tools became viable), many everyday tools, such as needles, were made from bone; such items continue to be valued today as antiques. Bone folders are still used by bookbinders.