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How were burins used to make tools from bone and antler?
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Paleolithic Period
The Venus of Willendorf, a Upper Paleolithic limestone figurine originally colored with red ochre, 30,000ā25,000 bce, found at Willendorf, Lower Austria; in the Natural History Museum, Vienna.
During the Paleolithic Period, the burin served as a specialized, stout, and narrow-bladed flint tool essential for working with hard materials like bone and antler, which were previously difficult to manipulate.12
To create tools from these materials, the burin was used to scrape narrow, parallel grooves into the surface of the bone or antler. By carving two such parallel lines, a craftsperson could detach a sliver of bone or antler to serve as raw material for creating various implements, including:1
- Needles, pins, and awls: Small, functional items shaped from the detached slivers.1
- Hooks: Larger pieces of bone were carved into hooks featuring one or more barbs or points.1
- Splitting wedges: Sections of antler were carved into wedges, which were then used to help work out longer pieces of bone for use as dartlike projectiles for spear-throwers.1
Once these pieces were detached and roughly shaped, other tools, such as sandrock polishers, were added to the toolkit to further refine, sharpen, and shape the final articles.1