Bone and ivory points in the Lower and Middle Paleolithic of Europe

The existence of shaped bone and ivory points, to be used as awls or with w ooden hafts, has been suggested for the Lower Paleolithic sites of Torralba and Ambrona and for several Middle Paleolithic sites, such as Vaufrey, Com be Grenal, Pech de l'Aze: I and Camiac. The use of hafted bone and ivory po ints would imply a spear armature technology similar to that well documente d in the Upper Paleolithic, often considered an innovation introduced to Eu rope by anatomically modem humans. The controversial ivory points from the two Spanish sites, whose fracture m orphology is considered natural by G. Haynes (1991), have been reanalyzed, checking for putative traces of human manufacture and utilization as descri bed by Howell & Freeman (1983), i.e., polish, flaking of stem, ground edges , striations from manufacture and contact with a haft or binding. We have b een able to study 19 new proboscidean tusk tips from the ongoing Ambrona ex cavations by a Spanish team. For these and nine other Middle Paleolithic bo ne and antler points we use optical and SEM microscope analysis, taphonomic analysis, comparative observations of Upper Paleolithic bone points, exper imental observations of manufacturing traces, modern tusk samples, and data on several bone and antler pseudo-points from carnivore accumulations. We show that none of the objects we have studied can be interpreted as an i ntentionally shaped point. The absence of hafted bone points in the Middle Paleolithic of Europe is contrasted with evidence of the use of hafted ston e points since OIS 5 or earlier in Eurasia and Africa. We suggest that the absence of organic spear armatures in the Middle Paleolithic is not due to a deficiency in the technology of Neandertals but may be tied to the organi zational strategies of the hunters and to patterns of game choice and captu re. (C) 2001 Academic Press.