Have you got the tine? Prehistoric Methods in Antler Working

Abstract

Antler working was prevalent throughout prehistory, with a breadth of intricately detailed and technologically complex antler artefacts observed within the archaeological record. In particular, during the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic, antler working with flint tools would have been a time-consuming process. While the chaîne opératoire of producing certain antler artefacts has previously been explored (Elliott and Milner, 2010; Marquebielle, 2011; Langley, 2014) there is a debate surrounding whether the soaking of antler was a necessary stage in this process. Soaking antler as a part of the chaîne opératoire is yet to be explored in depth, and thus the full implications of this stage to antler working processes in prehistory have not been considered. Where soaking antler has been explored, no distinction is made between soaking antler beams whole (for example, with no prior modification) or soaking antler which has had tines removed to expose the interior of the antler. We present the results of experiments which tested whether there is a significant difference between the workability of dry, soaked-whole antler, and soaked-exposed antler. We argue that there is a missing stage in current understandings of the chaîne opératoire of antler artefact manufacture. We conclude this stage could be responsible for the observed deposits of tine-removed antler in wetlands at prehistoric sites, such as Star Carr.

Keywords

• antler
• experiment
• methods and techniques
• palaeolithic
• mesolithic
• neolithic
• united kingdom