Establishing a typology for Australian pointed bone implements

Abstract

Australian Aboriginal people have been producing pointed bone technologies for at least 46,000 years. Frequently observed by Europeans on their arrival, it was noted that a great range of items, produced by both men and women, were used in a wide variety of economic and social tasks. In archaeological contexts too, an assortment of bone implements has been recovered. These, however, have simply been described as ‘bone points’, thus overlooking myriad morphological and use differences which could provide significant insights to researchers. With no consistent terminology or overarching classification system developed for Australian industries, excavators have largely focused on site-specific descriptions—effectively sidelining a large part of past Australian technocomplexes. This paper proposes a typology for Australian pointed bone technology. Based on examination of both archaeological and ethnographic implements, this new classification system will allow archaeologists to compare collections across the continent and, ultimately, relate them better to various aspects of subsistence, symbolism, and non-osseous technologies.

Keywords:

• Osseous technology
• Sahul
• Bone points

Acknowledgements

The Australian Museum, Sydney, is thanked for the use of their photographs and access to their ethnographic collections. I would also like to thank archaeologists Jane Balme, Sue O’Connor, Tim Maloney, Nicola Stern, Fenja Theden-Ringl and Sally Brockwell, and the many Traditional Owners who have allowed me to study their beautiful material culture. Finally, I would like to thank Adam Brumm for his comments on the draft of this manuscript, along with the constructive feedback provided by the three anonymous reviewers and the Editors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Australian Research Council DECRA grant [DE170101076].