Bone blade

The bone blade from Borzym, the district of Gryfino, was discovered in a peat bog by Ulrich, a worker, around 1909 and was later donated to the collection of the Gesellschaft für Pommersche Geschichte und Altertumskunde in Szczecin by a local teacher Schwantkes. It is slightly flattened, which results from the natural shape of the long bone of an animal of undetermined species. The first step in making the tool was to groove along the bone axis and break off a suitably long fragment. The half-finished product thus obtained was then worked with flint tools, gradually bringing it to the desired form. Traces of use and repairs with flint tools - longitudinal grooved lines and transverse striations- are still visible on the blade surface. Their presence allows the assumption that the blade was originally longer, and the repairs resulted in its successive shortening until it was practically impossible to use it. Such repairs are typical of a population representing a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, using various raw materials and disposing of them according to their availability and quality. Bone blades were used as arrowheads, javelins and spears by middle Stone Age communities in northern Europe. They are mainly found in peat bogs, which favour the survival of products made of organic raw materials. Due to its simplicity of manufacture and versatility, the bone blade from Borzym can only be dated generally to the Mesolithic and Proto-Neolithic (c. 9600-4100 BC).

Michał Adamczyk