Bone Artifacts

 

Bone is a cheap, readily available, and easily modified raw material. With a few simple scrapings of a rock, antler, or metal blade, any bone can be quickly transformed into a useful tool or an ornamental piece.

 

Most commonly, bone is a byproduct of food acquisition. A single animal kill can produce pounds of bone material. Due to the various sizes and shapes of the bones that make up a skeleton, certain bones and/or animal species are be better suited for a specific use. For example, the bones of bird skeletons are generally thin walled and smooth. Bird bones, therefore, are usually chosen for making bone beads and bone pipe stems.

In addition to bead and pipe stems, common bone artifacts include awls (large sewing needles), fish hooks, harpoon points, and haircombs. Just about anything that could be made from wood could also be made from bone.

Archaeologists can be thankful that people chose to use bone over wood for many of these artifacts because most of the wooden artifacts have been lost to decay over time. Although bone is also subject to decay it decomposes at a much slower rate that wood does.

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April M. Beisaw

e-mail: abeisaw@yahoo.com