Spotlighting Bone Tools
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Abstract
Hard animal materials (bone, antler, ivory, shell…) played a basic role within the human groups in the past, from Prehistory to the appearance of the first plastic products. Being used to producing a wide range of tools for everyday life, from awls to combs, they also had a great importance in order to manufacture different symbolic objetcs, such as personal ornaments or some sort of idols. Craftsmen had a in-depth knowledge about their mechanical properties and the proper tech- niques to manufacture each type of object, and every type of raw material was full of deep meaning and symbolism which made some objects really valuable and socially meaningful within a specific human group. Thus, the raw material was carefully selected to manufacture every single tool or ornament, considering all those mechanical and symbolic properties mentioned above…