What about the Bone Age?

Finished bone tools

“There are eyed needles dating to about 30,000-35,000 years old from Kostenki in Ukraine, and Tolbaga to the South of Lake Baikal… The technology to make clothes could have been inferred: it would have been impossible for the Ice Age Siberians to have survived without substantial fur clothing” Alice Roberts- The Incredible Human Journey 2009

In the UK during my time at school we were taught about the Stone Age, The Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Ice Age. As a now student of wilderness living skills, I remain perplexed that the humble bone… an existing bi product of other activities, and yet a key part of our human development across the globe, doesn’t even deserve an “Age”…

I remain reconciled to the fact that maybe it’s because the humble bone tool spans all of these ages and is therefore far too important to just align itself to one specific time in our evolution.

Academics are constantly pushing back dates and theories on the earliest use of bone and antler in tool production. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History evidence the earliest bone tools to date to the historical site Swartkrans (also famous for fire) in South Africa, attributed to Paranthropus robustus with a date range of 1.8 to 1.5 million years ago. These bone tools were used to dig for termites, a nutritionally rich source of protein. There are further collections at around 1.5 million years ago, again in South Africa in Blombos Cave where after analysis it is suggested production of projectiles and awls took place. Fast forward to our modern Homo and we can see many number of examples where bone and antler has been deliberately cracked, shaped, polished and ground for specific purposes to achieve specific goals, from 40, 000 years ago in the Yukon where mammoth bone was first split for the marrow and then changed shape for tools, and 30,000 years ago in the frozen wastelands of Siberia- the geographical spread is impressive.

A 4500 year old Antler with Bone still attached in situ where its last user placed it down in this flint mine, Grimes Graves UK
A 4,500 year old Antler with Bone still attached in situ where its last user placed it down in this flint mine, Grimes Graves UK.

Here we are going to look at how, using so called primitive technology, these artefacts may have been produced. The humble needle – archaeologists cannot agree whether the Neanderthals taught Homo Sapiens, the other way around, or indeed if the technology could have been developed simultaneously across these and more species. But I think Dr Alice Roberts sums it up quite nicely above in suggesting that the needle was paramount to our journey across the planet, part enabling us to traverse to colder climates and exploit the natural resources available there. Combine that with the arrowhead, spear point and more hunting tools we really did expand to all reaches of the globe over time.

I am starting here with the fresh metatarsal (lower leg) bone of a Fallow Deer (Dama Dama), one of the larger of the 6 species we have wild here in the UK. Upon domestication of animals within the UK we utilised a number of larger species for example cattle, but prior to domestication the larger animals would provide a wider array of opportunities to produce tools. That said, we should not think that smaller animals are not viable, there is a find of a bird bone needle in the Denisova Cave in Siberia with estimates of dates around 50,000 years old (Source: Siberian Times August 2016).

Fallow Deer lower leg bone
Fallow Deer lower leg bone.

I am aiming to produce tools using only natural materials and so I select a very sharp piece of flint from my waste pile to give me a slicing tool. You will notice that I am wearing gloves in the following pictures, not very primitive I am very aware! However, I have now had too many bites and infections in my fingers from handling raw materials now this is a safety barrier that I apply whenever possible, once the material is clean, I then remove the gloves.

Flint slicing tool
Flint slicing tool.
Slicing through the skin
Slicing through the skin.

The flint makes very easy work of slicing through the skin and then releasing the collagenous fibres that hold the various layers to the bone. You gain an incredible amount of control when using these simple flint blades, much more so than that a modern knife. The control enables you to feel your way around, releasing other useable material, such as the sinew and skin.

Releasing fibres
Releasing fibres.
Releasing fibres
Releasing fibres.
Releasing fibres
Releasing fibres.

Working on a fresh leg bone this work is fairly quick and relatively clean, if a tiny bit smelly. There are a number of other ways of cleaning bones, from leaving them in an ant’s nest, to soaking them in bio washing up powder, but a bit of patience and grunt work with flint is perfectly acceptable… and more in keeping with who we are rather than using chemicals.

Scoring the bone
Scoring the bone.

Now the more mundane work begins as you need to score the bone with the flint tool. I select another sharp edge (the flint blunts fairly swiftly on bone, as indeed so would your knife), and wrap the stone in a piece of leather before scoring a line in the bone, pressing fairly firmly. At this stage it is very easy to slip on the bone so great care should be taken with the razor-sharp flint. This scoring with heavy downward pressure is repeated a few times until a groove is established, it is OK then to release a bit of the pressure to save the wrist, but you must just keep scoring. There are no short cuts available to you here if you are using flint tools, it’s just score, score, score and keep scoring until you break through to the hollow material inside the bone. Scoring it in the rough shape that you would like your finished article to be will save you time whilst abrading it later.

Scoring through to the marrow to release the rough shape
Scoring through to the marrow to release the rough shape.
Scoring through to the marrow to release the rough shape
Scoring through to the marrow to release the rough shape.
Scoring through to the marrow to release the rough shape
Scoring through to the marrow to release the rough shape.
Scoring through to the marrow to release the rough shape
Scoring through to the marrow to release the rough shape.

When you have scored down through to the marrow you can prize the bone out, or give it a little encouragement, I urge caution though. Don’t try and force the bone out, if it is still firmly attached somewhere it will crack, I have seen many failures by students through a lack of patience. All in all, that scoring to release the small section took a couple of hours, and a couple of cups of tea.

The next stage is to then start to abrade, I selected a piece of limestone, but any stone that has a “soft” feel to it, granular, that will abrade away the bone will suffice just use whatever you have in your local area as our ancestors would have done. It is really the abrading that allows you to shape the item to exactly how you would like to finish, whether that be a thin sewing needle, or more of a thicker leather/canvas style needle. Here I will produce a number of different examples for you.

Abrading the bone to shape
Abrading the bone to shape.
Abrading the bone to shape
Abrading the bone to shape.
Abrading the bone to shape
Abrading the bone to shape.

The abrading may take anything from an hour to two depending on how much more material you need to remove, and I would suggest keep moving around your stone as the bone will smooth out the stone.

For the needle here I need to put an eye in it to thread sinew, so I have knapped of a small piece of flint and mounted it into the end of a long section of hazel, about the length of my finger tip to just short of my elbow. The flint is bound in very very tightly with buckskin. I have not used rawhide or glued it in place as I will need to replace it frequently. But buckskin will grip very, very well if corded and then bound tightly, applying a bit of pine resin can also help to make it sticky.

At the other end of the hazel carve a notch round the diameter and attach a further section of buckskin with a simple clove hitch into the notch, along with two thumb loops at either end. We can then spin this as you would a hand drill, whilst applying pressure through the thumb loops. This is not easy, and I got through 4 pieces of flint with varying degrees of success before achieving the hole, it was also far easier to start the hole depression with the flint burin pictured here by scraping away at it before trying to drill it.

Drill with thumb loops
Drill with thumb loops.
Flint bound with buckskin
Flint bound with buckskin.
Flint flake for the drill bit
Flint flake for the drill bit.
Finished bone tools
Finished bone tools.

You can see that the number of possibilities for bone tools are quite wide reaching- archaeologically there were awls for piercing hides to stitch with the needles, there were musical instruments that may have encouraged more social development, there were knives, combs, hair pins, and more. Personally, I find taking the time to achieve these results not only gives me a practical tool but also a form of therapy connecting with the natural materials.

Finished bone needle
Finished bone needle.
Useful stone tools
Useful stone tools.

Related posts