New York State Museum 



HORN AND BONE IMPLEMENTS 

 Introduction 



It is not usual to place implements of horn and bone among 

 those first used by man ; and yet there is no reason why they might 

 not then have been common. Nothing should be inferred from 

 their absence ; for, while the harder articles of stone seem almost 

 imperishable, those of bone soon decay, except under favorable con- 

 ditions. They appear in the bone caves of France with early imple- 

 ments; and in Kent's cavern, England, elegant bone articles are found 

 below the stalagmite. The artistic engravings on some of the early 

 bone implements of France have a wonderfully modern look to the 

 well trained eye, in spite of their well attested origin. All these 

 were preserved under favoring circumstances. Those left unpro- 

 tected quickly disappeared. Bearing this in mind, we can see that 

 a sharp bone was as suggestive of use as a sharp stone to the primi- 

 tive man, and the same remark applies to implements made of 

 wood. The fact has been strangely overlooked, that thorns are 

 natural awls and needles, and that hard wood knots preceded the 

 stone-headed war club, that pointed sticks were the first fish spears, 

 and that arrows, made entirely of wood were and still are used by 

 some Indians of this land. The early tomahawk was but a hard 

 wood club. A wood or bone age may thus even have preceded that 

 of stone, leaving few or no memorials. They certainly coexisted. 



In Evans's Ancient stone implements^ weapons and ornaments 

 of Great Britain are figures of Eskimo arrow flakers, with handles 

 of fossil ivory and points of reindeer bone. In such cases bone 

 preceded the stone which it formed into shape. Perforated tablets 

 of bone, resembling American gorgets, had been found in Europe. 

 Bone pins and needles were frequent, but this requires qualitica,- 

 tion. The pins represented would be called awls in America, and 

 have no heads. Some needles have central perforations and double 

 points, as with us, but others have terminal perforations in slightly 

 expanded heads. Bone was used in England for chisels, beads 

 and buttons ; horn for axes, hammers, pickaxes, hoes and handles. 

 In this work a figure is given of a bone harpoon from Kent's cave, 

 which has barbs on both sides, but with a point differing from those 



