Bone and Antler Organic Pressure Flakers

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Animal Resources in Experimental Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Bone has been used as a raw material for a range of activities for at least two million years. The criteria for determining whether a bone was used—or shaped and then used—have been established by archaeologists following decades of experimental research. In contrast, the antiquity of using bone for pressure flaking stone is less well established, and the earliest evidence currently dates to ~120 ka in China and Morocco. By ~20 ka in Eurasia, the use of antler from cervids for pressure flaking stone is documented regularly. Experimental knappers prefer to use antler for pressure flaking to produce fine and delicate tools. Cervids are absent in Africa, apart from *Megaceroides algericus* and *Cervus elaphus barbarus* in North Africa. The lack of cervids and therefore antler in sub-Saharan Africa has led researchers to suggest that early humans used bone to pressure flake stone. Criteria for identifying bone and antler pressure flakers are largely absent in the literature. Here we present use-wear analyses on experimental bone and antler pressure flakers used to shape stone tools. We suggest that through taphonomic analyses, it is possible to identify bone and antler pressure flakers in the archaeological record.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Animal Resources in Experimental Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37182.0