The groove and splinter technique of working reindeer and red deer antler in Upper Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic Europe
Geoff Clark
[page-n-57]
J.
•
G. D. CLARK
The groove and s.plinter technique of
working reindeer and red deer antler in
Upper Palaeolithic and Early f'\es.olithic
Europe
The need to study techn iques os well as products has long been
recognised among prehistorians. PorticulQ ~ ly valuable insights
hove already been goined by studying flint im plements in conjunc·
tion with cores, unf in ished specimens and athe," debris of manu foctur e and impor tant advances hove o lso been made in the un derstanding of ceramic and metal types through paying attention
1c such topics os potti ng, metallurgy and smithing. Rather less
notice hos been token of the way in which ob jec ts mode from moI<~ rior s like antler and bone were fabricated. Yet in the Case of
hunters such materials of necessity played a prominent role in
technology os well as ref lect ing in a un ique fashion the in te rplay
of cu ltural inheritance, economy ond ecology. In drowing o ttentkm to on impor tan t piece of evidence from Professor Lui s Peri ·
cot's splendid excavations at Porpall6 in Eas tern Spain, one may
hope to stimula te in terest in the waste antler moterial from prehis toric si tes, material which it is to be feared has too often been
discarded or overlooked so for os cu ltural signi ficance is concerned.
The first to study the working of antler by Upper Polaeolithic
:-non in any detail was Alfred Rust, excavator of the famous si tes
of Meienda rf and Stellmoor in the Ahrensburg tunnel-volley, north- 57 _
[page-n-58]
2
J . G. D. CLARK
eost of Homburg (I) , Reindeer antlers from the Homhufgion levels
at each si te were not only numerous, bu t owing to the water-togged character of the calcareous muds in which they were found
exceptionally well-preserved. As 0 resul t of his close examination
o f t his remarkably fresh materiol Rust was able to demonst rate
convincingly the methods used by the earlier Upper Polaeoli thic hunters of t he Homburg area to obtoin the blanks from which to fabri ca te harpoon-heads and ot her ob jects from reindeer antler (2). In
essence their method WQS to detach longitudinal s tri ps or splin te rs
from the inner arc of the beams, generally s topping short a t the
bez (fig . I, a), occasionally reach ing the brow t ine (fig. I, b),
but ne v e r carrying on down to the r 0 0 I or stump of the
antler. The splinters were first defined by cu tting deep grooves
by means of fli nt burins, so penetra t ing the hard outer wall of the
ant ler down to the inner core; from this they would be detached
by means of levering, someti mes assisted by undercutting by means
of a special type of pranged flint. As a general rule the Hamburgians seem to hove been content wi th one splinter from each ant ler (fig I, aj, but occasionally they removed as many as three: for
ins tance an an t ler beam from Meiendorf not a nly lacked some twofifths of its girth, implying the removal of probably two splin te rs,
but a lso showed on the surviving portion a groove which defined a
third one (3); again, a specimen fra m Stellmoor shows clear traces
of the removal of one long and two shor ter splint ers (fig. I, bl (4) .
Traces of the same technique have si nce been recognized on
objects from many points within the territory of t he Late-glacial
reindeer hu nters of northern Europe: one may cite 0 reindeer a ntler from the Havel La kes west of Berl in from which a st rip some
54 cms. long has been removed from the inner arc of the beam (5);
or, again, one might point to grooved an tlers of rei ndeer from
( 1) A. RUST: "Dos ollsleinzeilliche Rennl ierlogerloger Melcndor l", Neumuns_
ter, 1931; and " Die oft- und miltels leinzeitliehen Funde vcn Slellmoor" Nwmilnster, 1943.
(2) A. RUST: ap. elt. 1937, pp. 90-98; 1943, pp. 128 fI.
131 A. RUST: ap. d t. 1937, p. 97 and tof. 36.
14\ A. RUST: ap. dt. 1943, p. 128 and taf. 24.
151 R. STIMMING: "Die Rennlierzei l in der morkisehen Havelgegend" in
MannllS, Zeitsehrift fur Vorocschich te, VIII, Leipzig, 1917, pp. 236-237 and
10 1. IV. 8 .
_ 58 _
•
[page-n-59]
3
TECH NIQUE Of' WORK ING ANTLER
a
Fill. 1.-Relndeer antlers worked in the groove a nd splinter technique from Ham.
burgla n levels a t
many. Scales
11
Cl
Meiendorf and b SteUmoor.
(e 1/16), b (e 2 /15 d 2 /5).
-
59 -
Sc hl ~wig- Hals lel n ,
Ger·
(After Rus t)
[page-n-60]
4
J . G. D. CLARK
the old te rr itories of East (6) and Wes t Prussic (7), both within the
fron tiers of present-doy Poland, and also from Denmark (8) . Again,
os Rust pointed out (9), basically the some technique of working
antler was employed by the cove-dwell ing reindeer hunters of cen tral and western Europe, side by side with the utilization of com plete sections for batons and si milar forms. For instance the Pe k6 rno cave, Kos telik, Moravio, yielded reindeer an tlers with pora lIel grooves defining in some in stances a number of splin ters and
a lso the s tumps of others from which severa l splin te rs hod been
detached ( 10 ). In the extreme south of Germany t he la te Mogda lenion leve ls of Pe ters fe ls neor Engen and the open s ta tion of Schus·
senquelle sout h of the Federsee have both produced traces of the
some technique, the former including 0 speci men wi th a short in ·
cipien t groove (11) a nd 0 poin ted st ump from which three and pos·
sibly more s trips hove been token (12), and the latter on antler
beam showing signs of the removal of at least one large s t rip
(13) . No syste ma tic study has been mode of the very rich material
from the French and north Spanish coves, but it is not difficult to
quote examples from late Magdalenian deposits : from Bodegoule
in the Dordogne one may mention 0 particu la r ly fine reindeer ant ·
ler beam from which two s trips some 30 cms. long hove been de·
toched, together with on actual splin ter c. 29.5 cms. long (14J '
and from Mongaudier in the Charente on antler with preparotary
parallel grooves (15) .
(61 e. g. from Popelken, kr. Lobio .... Sce W. GAERTE; "Auf den Spuren der
Oslpreussisc hen Momm ... I . ... . Rennl,erjoger", in Monn ...s, Zeilschrlft fUr Vorges·
chich te, XVIII , Leipzig. 1926, pp. 253-257.
(7) e. g. from kr. Kulm. See H. GROSS: "A... f den ol les len Sp"'ren des Men.
sehen In Altpreussen" in Pr ...ssio, bd. 32,1938, pp. 118-119 on. (8) From the weslern edge of MuJlerup 8og. See T. MATH 1ASSE N, In "Aclo
Archaeologico" , 1938, p. 175.
(91 A. RUST; op. cil. 1943, pp. 143-144 .
(1 0 ) K. ABSOLON ol'\d R. CZIZ EK : "Die Poloeolil hiseh e Erforsehung der Pe.
k6rno · Ht)hle ,n Mohren" in Milleilungen o...s der Poloeolilhischen Ableil, om
MOhr. Londesm ...seum nr. 26, Brunn, 1932, lob. XX and XXI, 9.
(11) E. pETERS: "Die Altsleinzeill iche Kulr"'rs lolle Pelersfels", Augsoorg,
1930. 101. XVlI , 2 b.
1121 E. PETERS; op. cil. in nole 11, lof. XIX, 4.
t 13) R. R. SCHMIDT: "Die diluv,ole Vorzeil Deu tsehlonds", SI ... ttgorl , 1912.
See pp. 54-56, 187-188 o nd lof. XXIV, 8.
(141 I hove 10 thank Mr. G. de G. Sieveking for recognIsing lhese In tne Mu_
see de I' Homme, Poris, ond for obloining photographs.
(1 51 Exomin.ed in lne museum of the Institute de Palrontologie Humo ine,
Paris, by cour lesy of Prof. Vo ... frey .
-
60 _
[page-n-61]
n :CH NIQU E OF WORK ING ANTLE I{
5
Recent excavations in the north-east of England at Star Corr,
Seomer, Yorkshire (16), hove shown t hat basica lly the some technique was applied to red deer antler during the Pre-boreal phose
of Post -glacia l time in north -western Europe (pI. I; fig . 2) . Like the
Homburgions and Magdalenions, the proto-Moglemosions of Star
Carr sought to obtain the row ma terial for making their barbed
poin ts by removing s trips of splinters from the a ntl ers of their principal food-an imal. Moreover they achi eved t his aim by closely similar means, cu tting pa rallel grooves (i t is typica l t hat only in very
rare insta nces did these converge a t either end) a long t he length
of the beam a nd forcing ou t the intervening stri p of an tle r. The
minor varia tions which exist may well be due to differences in the
conformation of red deer and reindeer an tle r. W hereas the Ham burg ions only detached s trips down to the base of the bez or very
rarely os fa r as the brow tine, the Star CarT people removed t hem
right down to the burr or s tump of the an tle r. Again, the red deer
hunters rarely contented themselves with 0 single splin te r (pI. I,
top) os was the norma l practice with the Hamburgians; os 0 rule
they secu red three or four (pI. I, middle) and even on occasion u S
many os five or s ix pieces, os well os occasionolly removi ng splil-.fers from the brow tine. One result of this was that splin ters were
removed from t he sides of the beam as well os from its inner ore,
so tha t only 0 narrow s trip would remain with t he ti nes or their
s lumps (pI. I, bottom) and this would commonly be found broken
short near the base of the an tler (cf. fig . 3) . At Star Carr s t rips as
long os 22 inches (c. 56 cms.) were obtained in this way.
From 0 culture -historical poin t of view the main in t erest of the
Star Corr an t lers is Ihat t hey demonstrate 0 con t inua tion into Postg laCial t imes of a t echnique of Upper Po laeolithic origin, one moreover whi ch seems to hove played only a ~ery subSidi ary role in
later times . Indeed in the ma ture Moglemasia n cul tu re o f t he full
Boreal period barbed points were made almos t invariably of bone
(16) Pre liminary occoun ls of mo ler ial fram the 1949 and 1950 seosa~ hove
oppe pp. 52-69 and Vol. XVI , pp. 109_ 129. A full oc:coun l, including the material fram
the more ex tensive excavations of 1951. will oppear in "Excavations 0 1 Star
Carr: An Early Mesali l h,c Site a t Seamer, near xaroorO\Jgh, England" 10 be pu _
blished by the Cambridge Universi ty Press.
-
61 -
[page-n-62]
..
" " ' - - - ' • 11'
.,
Fig. 2.-Red deer antler worked in the groove ond splinter technique from the
Proto-Moglemosion site of Star Corr, Yorkshire, England . Two splinters or
strips of antler hove been removed ond a third hos been portly defined by
o groove (c 11 / 30).
[page-n-63]
7
TECH NIQUE OF WORK ING ANTLER
rather than ant ler (17) . The choice of antler and the method of
working it thus emphasize the intermediate s tatus of the Star Carr
people between the Magdalenians and Hamburgians and the Maglemasians proper.
Geologica l
periods
Cllmo tic
Vege Tot lono l
zones (}euenJ
Sub_otlontic
IX
Sub-boreal
VI II
I ""'"',
Archoeologlcol cultu res
ond s toges
Iron Age
"0
,
A,.
Bronze
u
I
Neolitnic
?
"
•
Atlontic
VII
ErteboeJ le
Boreol
~
V-V I
Moglemosion
(Mullerup, Svoerdborg)
Pre-boteol
All eraed
asc illotion
"0
U
'u
0
0.
•
<;
III
11
Older Drya,<;
!,,;,~i,':;"
Oldes t Dryoo
I
..>
•
PrOTo_Moglemosian
(Sta r Con, Klos terlund)
IV
Younger
Dryas
."
~
A..... ensburg
(Slellmoor, upper)
Lyngby
(Naerre Lyngby)
."
£
Bromme
'2
,
0
"0
~
~
I b
=>
I
0
Homburgian
(Meiendod ond Slellmoor, lower)
T .. ble . howing the seq ll ence of hum on settle me nt in Nor the rn Ellropo
Proof tha t the Sta r Carr technique is in truth Upper Palaeo ·
lithic in origin is to be found in the identical treatment of red deer
(17 1 The Boreol Mag lemosia ns did occasionally use Slog anT ler 05 a rnateria l
for tneir barbed points, as wiTnC$s finds 'rom Svaerdborg ond olner of Ihe Zealand
sites, bu t th l$ was very excep tional. See " Oonske Oldsoger", I, num. 113 ond page
66, COpennogen, 1948.
_ 63 _
[page-n-64]
8
J. G. D. CLA I{K
antle r in the southernmost territories of t he Mogdalenion culture
beyond the range of the reindeer during the Late Pleistocene. Du ring a recent journey to Spain ( 18) the au thor hod the opportuni ty
fig . 3.- 8ase of red deer antler from wh ich three SlriDS hove been removed in Iho
groove and splinter technique from (] Magdale nion IV level ot Po,pollo
(Valencia) (2 / 3),
of examining the lower ends of shed s tag an tlers worked in this
fashion from the Cueva Palonio, Asturias (19), and from 0 Mogdolenian IV level in the cave of Porpoll6, Valencia, excavated with
such brilliant results by Professor Lu is Pericot (20) . By court esy of
the authorities it was possible to make a summary sketch of the
(18) The author ;5 grateful la tne Brit ish Academy for a generous grant 10ward s the upenses of thi s journ ey.
(19) Mus. no. N. 244. The out hor is indebted to the Direc tor, Prof. J. Mar _
linez Sonto-Ololla, for ollowing him 10 exomine this specimen.
(20) Vole ncia, Museum of PrehiSlory of Ihe Dipulaci6n Provi nciol, num. p329. The objec t wos described by Prof. L. PERICOT GARCIA: "Lo Cuev
dagger (p. 9 2, fig. 62, 21 .
-6<\-
[page-n-65]
T!;;CHN IQU ": OF WORK ING ANTLEH
y
example from Parpall6 (fig. 3), which con be seen to consist of t he
lower end of the residual port of an antler beam broken short in
the manner indicated. Clearly visible ore scars left by t he extraction of three parallel strips of antler, which had evidently been
removed right down to the root of t he beam as in the case of those
from Star Carr. Indeed the Parpa1l6 and Cueva Pa lonia specimens
ore so similar to broken pieces from Star Carr that they might easily have come from t he Yorkshire site.
The technique of extract ing strips of splinters of antler by cu tting parallel grooves and levering or pulling out the intervening
portion is thus seen to be of widespread occurrence among the reindeer and red deer hunting peoples of Eu rope during Late-glacial
and Early Post -glacia l t imes (21) . It would be interesting to know
whether it was also employed by the Azilians of Northern Spain
and Southern France, among whom t he stag an t ler harpoon was in
widespread and common use and whose Late Magdalen ian anteceden t s ore commonly assumed . This brief note is offered in hommage
to a distinguished Spanish archaeologist in t he hope that he will
find many successors. Examination of discarded an tl er and bone
material, particularly from cave or shelter sites for indications of
technique is only one of the innumerable tasks that awai t research.
(21) Several finds of red deer antlers with traces of the groove and splinter
technique hove be en recovered from Danish soil but nane has yet been found in
datable deposits.
-65-
[page-n-66]
[page-n-67]
LAM. I.
qe:t dCt!f anrlers WOIked In the groove ond splinle<
1 e-~hnIQUe
from the Proto-
Mogdolenion we of Stor Con, York.$hire (Englondl . Stoles; top 11 / 41
middle 11121. boltom 13111
[page-n-68]
J.
•
G. D. CLARK
The groove and s.plinter technique of
working reindeer and red deer antler in
Upper Palaeolithic and Early f'\es.olithic
Europe
The need to study techn iques os well as products has long been
recognised among prehistorians. PorticulQ ~ ly valuable insights
hove already been goined by studying flint im plements in conjunc·
tion with cores, unf in ished specimens and athe," debris of manu foctur e and impor tant advances hove o lso been made in the un derstanding of ceramic and metal types through paying attention
1c such topics os potti ng, metallurgy and smithing. Rather less
notice hos been token of the way in which ob jec ts mode from moI<~ rior s like antler and bone were fabricated. Yet in the Case of
hunters such materials of necessity played a prominent role in
technology os well as ref lect ing in a un ique fashion the in te rplay
of cu ltural inheritance, economy ond ecology. In drowing o ttentkm to on impor tan t piece of evidence from Professor Lui s Peri ·
cot's splendid excavations at Porpall6 in Eas tern Spain, one may
hope to stimula te in terest in the waste antler moterial from prehis toric si tes, material which it is to be feared has too often been
discarded or overlooked so for os cu ltural signi ficance is concerned.
The first to study the working of antler by Upper Polaeolithic
:-non in any detail was Alfred Rust, excavator of the famous si tes
of Meienda rf and Stellmoor in the Ahrensburg tunnel-volley, north- 57 _
[page-n-58]
2
J . G. D. CLARK
eost of Homburg (I) , Reindeer antlers from the Homhufgion levels
at each si te were not only numerous, bu t owing to the water-togged character of the calcareous muds in which they were found
exceptionally well-preserved. As 0 resul t of his close examination
o f t his remarkably fresh materiol Rust was able to demonst rate
convincingly the methods used by the earlier Upper Polaeoli thic hunters of t he Homburg area to obtoin the blanks from which to fabri ca te harpoon-heads and ot her ob jects from reindeer antler (2). In
essence their method WQS to detach longitudinal s tri ps or splin te rs
from the inner arc of the beams, generally s topping short a t the
bez (fig . I, a), occasionally reach ing the brow t ine (fig. I, b),
but ne v e r carrying on down to the r 0 0 I or stump of the
antler. The splinters were first defined by cu tting deep grooves
by means of fli nt burins, so penetra t ing the hard outer wall of the
ant ler down to the inner core; from this they would be detached
by means of levering, someti mes assisted by undercutting by means
of a special type of pranged flint. As a general rule the Hamburgians seem to hove been content wi th one splinter from each ant ler (fig I, aj, but occasionally they removed as many as three: for
ins tance an an t ler beam from Meiendorf not a nly lacked some twofifths of its girth, implying the removal of probably two splin te rs,
but a lso showed on the surviving portion a groove which defined a
third one (3); again, a specimen fra m Stellmoor shows clear traces
of the removal of one long and two shor ter splint ers (fig. I, bl (4) .
Traces of the same technique have si nce been recognized on
objects from many points within the territory of t he Late-glacial
reindeer hu nters of northern Europe: one may cite 0 reindeer a ntler from the Havel La kes west of Berl in from which a st rip some
54 cms. long has been removed from the inner arc of the beam (5);
or, again, one might point to grooved an tlers of rei ndeer from
( 1) A. RUST: "Dos ollsleinzeilliche Rennl ierlogerloger Melcndor l", Neumuns_
ter, 1931; and " Die oft- und miltels leinzeitliehen Funde vcn Slellmoor" Nwmilnster, 1943.
(2) A. RUST: ap. elt. 1937, pp. 90-98; 1943, pp. 128 fI.
131 A. RUST: ap. d t. 1937, p. 97 and tof. 36.
14\ A. RUST: ap. dt. 1943, p. 128 and taf. 24.
151 R. STIMMING: "Die Rennlierzei l in der morkisehen Havelgegend" in
MannllS, Zeitsehrift fur Vorocschich te, VIII, Leipzig, 1917, pp. 236-237 and
10 1. IV. 8 .
_ 58 _
•
[page-n-59]
3
TECH NIQUE Of' WORK ING ANTLER
a
Fill. 1.-Relndeer antlers worked in the groove a nd splinter technique from Ham.
burgla n levels a t
many. Scales
11
Cl
Meiendorf and b SteUmoor.
(e 1/16), b (e 2 /15 d 2 /5).
-
59 -
Sc hl ~wig- Hals lel n ,
Ger·
(After Rus t)
[page-n-60]
4
J . G. D. CLARK
the old te rr itories of East (6) and Wes t Prussic (7), both within the
fron tiers of present-doy Poland, and also from Denmark (8) . Again,
os Rust pointed out (9), basically the some technique of working
antler was employed by the cove-dwell ing reindeer hunters of cen tral and western Europe, side by side with the utilization of com plete sections for batons and si milar forms. For instance the Pe k6 rno cave, Kos telik, Moravio, yielded reindeer an tlers with pora lIel grooves defining in some in stances a number of splin ters and
a lso the s tumps of others from which severa l splin te rs hod been
detached ( 10 ). In the extreme south of Germany t he la te Mogda lenion leve ls of Pe ters fe ls neor Engen and the open s ta tion of Schus·
senquelle sout h of the Federsee have both produced traces of the
some technique, the former including 0 speci men wi th a short in ·
cipien t groove (11) a nd 0 poin ted st ump from which three and pos·
sibly more s trips hove been token (12), and the latter on antler
beam showing signs of the removal of at least one large s t rip
(13) . No syste ma tic study has been mode of the very rich material
from the French and north Spanish coves, but it is not difficult to
quote examples from late Magdalenian deposits : from Bodegoule
in the Dordogne one may mention 0 particu la r ly fine reindeer ant ·
ler beam from which two s trips some 30 cms. long hove been de·
toched, together with on actual splin ter c. 29.5 cms. long (14J '
and from Mongaudier in the Charente on antler with preparotary
parallel grooves (15) .
(61 e. g. from Popelken, kr. Lobio .... Sce W. GAERTE; "Auf den Spuren der
Oslpreussisc hen Momm ... I . ... . Rennl,erjoger", in Monn ...s, Zeilschrlft fUr Vorges·
chich te, XVIII , Leipzig. 1926, pp. 253-257.
(7) e. g. from kr. Kulm. See H. GROSS: "A... f den ol les len Sp"'ren des Men.
sehen In Altpreussen" in Pr ...ssio, bd. 32,1938, pp. 118-119 on. (8) From the weslern edge of MuJlerup 8og. See T. MATH 1ASSE N, In "Aclo
Archaeologico" , 1938, p. 175.
(91 A. RUST; op. cil. 1943, pp. 143-144 .
(1 0 ) K. ABSOLON ol'\d R. CZIZ EK : "Die Poloeolil hiseh e Erforsehung der Pe.
k6rno · Ht)hle ,n Mohren" in Milleilungen o...s der Poloeolilhischen Ableil, om
MOhr. Londesm ...seum nr. 26, Brunn, 1932, lob. XX and XXI, 9.
(11) E. pETERS: "Die Altsleinzeill iche Kulr"'rs lolle Pelersfels", Augsoorg,
1930. 101. XVlI , 2 b.
1121 E. PETERS; op. cil. in nole 11, lof. XIX, 4.
t 13) R. R. SCHMIDT: "Die diluv,ole Vorzeil Deu tsehlonds", SI ... ttgorl , 1912.
See pp. 54-56, 187-188 o nd lof. XXIV, 8.
(141 I hove 10 thank Mr. G. de G. Sieveking for recognIsing lhese In tne Mu_
see de I' Homme, Poris, ond for obloining photographs.
(1 51 Exomin.ed in lne museum of the Institute de Palrontologie Humo ine,
Paris, by cour lesy of Prof. Vo ... frey .
-
60 _
[page-n-61]
n :CH NIQU E OF WORK ING ANTLE I{
5
Recent excavations in the north-east of England at Star Corr,
Seomer, Yorkshire (16), hove shown t hat basica lly the some technique was applied to red deer antler during the Pre-boreal phose
of Post -glacia l time in north -western Europe (pI. I; fig . 2) . Like the
Homburgions and Magdalenions, the proto-Moglemosions of Star
Carr sought to obtain the row ma terial for making their barbed
poin ts by removing s trips of splinters from the a ntl ers of their principal food-an imal. Moreover they achi eved t his aim by closely similar means, cu tting pa rallel grooves (i t is typica l t hat only in very
rare insta nces did these converge a t either end) a long t he length
of the beam a nd forcing ou t the intervening stri p of an tle r. The
minor varia tions which exist may well be due to differences in the
conformation of red deer and reindeer an tle r. W hereas the Ham burg ions only detached s trips down to the base of the bez or very
rarely os fa r as the brow tine, the Star CarT people removed t hem
right down to the burr or s tump of the an tle r. Again, the red deer
hunters rarely contented themselves with 0 single splin te r (pI. I,
top) os was the norma l practice with the Hamburgians; os 0 rule
they secu red three or four (pI. I, middle) and even on occasion u S
many os five or s ix pieces, os well os occasionolly removi ng splil-.fers from the brow tine. One result of this was that splin ters were
removed from t he sides of the beam as well os from its inner ore,
so tha t only 0 narrow s trip would remain with t he ti nes or their
s lumps (pI. I, bottom) and this would commonly be found broken
short near the base of the an tler (cf. fig . 3) . At Star Carr s t rips as
long os 22 inches (c. 56 cms.) were obtained in this way.
From 0 culture -historical poin t of view the main in t erest of the
Star Corr an t lers is Ihat t hey demonstrate 0 con t inua tion into Postg laCial t imes of a t echnique of Upper Po laeolithic origin, one moreover whi ch seems to hove played only a ~ery subSidi ary role in
later times . Indeed in the ma ture Moglemasia n cul tu re o f t he full
Boreal period barbed points were made almos t invariably of bone
(16) Pre liminary occoun ls of mo ler ial fram the 1949 and 1950 seosa~ hove
oppe pp. 52-69 and Vol. XVI , pp. 109_ 129. A full oc:coun l, including the material fram
the more ex tensive excavations of 1951. will oppear in "Excavations 0 1 Star
Carr: An Early Mesali l h,c Site a t Seamer, near xaroorO\Jgh, England" 10 be pu _
blished by the Cambridge Universi ty Press.
-
61 -
[page-n-62]
..
" " ' - - - ' • 11'
.,
Fig. 2.-Red deer antler worked in the groove ond splinter technique from the
Proto-Moglemosion site of Star Corr, Yorkshire, England . Two splinters or
strips of antler hove been removed ond a third hos been portly defined by
o groove (c 11 / 30).
[page-n-63]
7
TECH NIQUE OF WORK ING ANTLER
rather than ant ler (17) . The choice of antler and the method of
working it thus emphasize the intermediate s tatus of the Star Carr
people between the Magdalenians and Hamburgians and the Maglemasians proper.
Geologica l
periods
Cllmo tic
Vege Tot lono l
zones (}euenJ
Sub_otlontic
IX
Sub-boreal
VI II
I ""'"',
Archoeologlcol cultu res
ond s toges
Iron Age
"0
,
A,.
Bronze
u
I
Neolitnic
?
"
•
Atlontic
VII
ErteboeJ le
Boreol
~
V-V I
Moglemosion
(Mullerup, Svoerdborg)
Pre-boteol
All eraed
asc illotion
"0
U
'u
0
0.
•
<;
III
11
Older Drya,<;
!,,;,~i,':;"
Oldes t Dryoo
I
..>
•
PrOTo_Moglemosian
(Sta r Con, Klos terlund)
IV
Younger
Dryas
."
~
A..... ensburg
(Slellmoor, upper)
Lyngby
(Naerre Lyngby)
."
£
Bromme
'2
,
0
"0
~
~
I b
=>
I
0
Homburgian
(Meiendod ond Slellmoor, lower)
T .. ble . howing the seq ll ence of hum on settle me nt in Nor the rn Ellropo
Proof tha t the Sta r Carr technique is in truth Upper Palaeo ·
lithic in origin is to be found in the identical treatment of red deer
(17 1 The Boreol Mag lemosia ns did occasionally use Slog anT ler 05 a rnateria l
for tneir barbed points, as wiTnC$s finds 'rom Svaerdborg ond olner of Ihe Zealand
sites, bu t th l$ was very excep tional. See " Oonske Oldsoger", I, num. 113 ond page
66, COpennogen, 1948.
_ 63 _
[page-n-64]
8
J. G. D. CLA I{K
antle r in the southernmost territories of t he Mogdalenion culture
beyond the range of the reindeer during the Late Pleistocene. Du ring a recent journey to Spain ( 18) the au thor hod the opportuni ty
fig . 3.- 8ase of red deer antler from wh ich three SlriDS hove been removed in Iho
groove and splinter technique from (] Magdale nion IV level ot Po,pollo
(Valencia) (2 / 3),
of examining the lower ends of shed s tag an tlers worked in this
fashion from the Cueva Palonio, Asturias (19), and from 0 Mogdolenian IV level in the cave of Porpoll6, Valencia, excavated with
such brilliant results by Professor Lu is Pericot (20) . By court esy of
the authorities it was possible to make a summary sketch of the
(18) The author ;5 grateful la tne Brit ish Academy for a generous grant 10ward s the upenses of thi s journ ey.
(19) Mus. no. N. 244. The out hor is indebted to the Direc tor, Prof. J. Mar _
linez Sonto-Ololla, for ollowing him 10 exomine this specimen.
(20) Vole ncia, Museum of PrehiSlory of Ihe Dipulaci6n Provi nciol, num. p329. The objec t wos described by Prof. L. PERICOT GARCIA: "Lo Cuev
-6<\-
[page-n-65]
T!;;CHN IQU ": OF WORK ING ANTLEH
y
example from Parpall6 (fig. 3), which con be seen to consist of t he
lower end of the residual port of an antler beam broken short in
the manner indicated. Clearly visible ore scars left by t he extraction of three parallel strips of antler, which had evidently been
removed right down to the root of t he beam as in the case of those
from Star Carr. Indeed the Parpa1l6 and Cueva Pa lonia specimens
ore so similar to broken pieces from Star Carr that they might easily have come from t he Yorkshire site.
The technique of extract ing strips of splinters of antler by cu tting parallel grooves and levering or pulling out the intervening
portion is thus seen to be of widespread occurrence among the reindeer and red deer hunting peoples of Eu rope during Late-glacial
and Early Post -glacia l t imes (21) . It would be interesting to know
whether it was also employed by the Azilians of Northern Spain
and Southern France, among whom t he stag an t ler harpoon was in
widespread and common use and whose Late Magdalen ian anteceden t s ore commonly assumed . This brief note is offered in hommage
to a distinguished Spanish archaeologist in t he hope that he will
find many successors. Examination of discarded an tl er and bone
material, particularly from cave or shelter sites for indications of
technique is only one of the innumerable tasks that awai t research.
(21) Several finds of red deer antlers with traces of the groove and splinter
technique hove be en recovered from Danish soil but nane has yet been found in
datable deposits.
-65-
[page-n-66]
[page-n-67]
LAM. I.
qe:t dCt!f anrlers WOIked In the groove ond splinle<
1 e-~hnIQUe
from the Proto-
Mogdolenion we of Stor Con, York.$hire (Englondl . Stoles; top 11 / 41
middle 11121. boltom 13111
[page-n-68]