More Replicas of Bone Tool Artifacts
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The following replicas were made using authentic materials, methods, and tools.
The natural curvature of a deer rib made this bone ideal for making matting needles. Cattail mats were used extensively by Eastern Woodland nations. Simple grooving of a rib gives us a musical rasp.
By working splinters of long bone with sandstone, "scraps" of bone were turned into lovely women's hair articles. The long bone was probably smashed with a hammer stone to get at the marrow. The refuse from the meal was then subsequently used.
I made my replica pictured above of the fantastic original piece from bone. The original was made of antler. Those objecting to the price one sees for authentic antler reproductions by Native American artists have never tried to work antler or obtain this level of beauty and detail in a bone or antler object.
The First Peoples played various games of chance using dice-like pieces often made of bone.
Squash, one of the "three sisters" (corn, beans, and squash) , was an important domesticated vegetable. Simple knives worked from deer scapulas were quite utilitarian.
Deer teeth drilled with flint drills and bird bone cut into hollow sections with flint chips made an attractive necklace when strung on a piece of sinew.
Hair was scrapped from the deer's hide prior to tanning using a beamer like this.
Antler is a very hard substance and a bit difficult to work. Antler tips were sometimes sharpened and drilled out for arrowheads. Antler was also used to make flaking tools used in flintknapping as shown in the reproduced artifact above the arrow point.