Awls
Hide and leather piercing
Upper Palaeolithic
44 000 to 14 000 years
Bone tool characterized by a distal extremity modified into a point and a proximal part destined for prehension.
M. Julien, A. Leroi-Gourhan Dictionnaire de la préhistoire. P.U.F, Paris,1994.
Commentary :
Awls appear very early, when the working of bone materials is still little developed.
Along with a few body ornaments and rare projectile points, it is one of the first bone tools in the history of humanity.
This awl is made from a slightly modified bone fragment. The point is wide and robust in order to pierce and then combine soft plant or animal materials.
Though apparently simple, this object is of crucial importance from the moment of its invention. Well before the appearance of eyed needles, the awl make possible the manufacture of clothing, blankets, tents, traps and containers, all part of the indispensable gear hunter-gatherer groups rely upon, for their survival.