Splitting wedge
Working hard organic material
Upper Palaeolithic
44 000 to 14 000 years
…Object made from deer antler, or more rarely from ivory (…) bearing a distal part modified into a bevel and a slightly regularized proximal extremity showing traces of percussion.
A. Averbouh, L’art préhistorique des Pyrénées, R.M.N. 1996
Commentary :
Splitting wedges made from reindeer antler, are difficult to recognize, as they are usually discovered broken or heavily damaged.
The traces that identify them, are located on the bevels, in the form of deep striations, and on the butts, which are crushed and deformed by violent impacts.
These very robust objects are adapted to the working of wood and plants, as well as bone materials, such as antler and mammoth ivory. They are used as intermediary pieces to split, shape, and break these materials into smaller elements.
During the Upper Palaeolithic, the splitting wedge is an indispensable, multipurpose tool, for the production of diverse objects, such as tent stakes, projectile shafts, tool handles and other bone or wooden accessories.