Split-based bone point

Hunting of large prey

Aurignacian
42 000 to 34 000 years

Commentary : 

Split-based points are made from reindeer antler. Their robust form and oval transverse cross-section, form a sturdy weapon capable of resisting violent impacts.

The wide base suggests it is hafted onto a heavy wooden shaft, with a large diameter. The complete, and consequently heavy, weapon can therefore be thrown, or used in as a thrusting weapon to attack, or finish off prey.

The originality of this point lies in its partially split base. Once it has been fitted into a slot cut into a hardwood shaft, and then tightly ligatured, a small antler wedge, completes the solid binding. Forcing the piece into the split causes an irreversible expansion of the base, inside the slot. The point can then no longer be detached from the shaft, and the weapon becomes highly lethal.

The split-based point is invented at the beginning of the Aurignacian. The ingenuity of the hafting system clearly shows the attention paid to hunting weapons and the importance of animals in the economy of hunters, at the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic.