Osseous hunting technologies

Analysis of the recovered faunal remains determined that the osseous tools to be described below were made on site. Blanks, unfinished tools, and waste pieces were identified in each of the four phases, with broken fragments of finished artifacts, along with several points displaying cut marks consistent with those produced during retooling activities, suggesting that maintenance of weapons was also regularly practiced. Of the artifacts made on terrestrial bone, 130 are consistent in size, morphology, weight, and use wear with having served as projectile points. Flaked and ground into shape, three broad categories of point were identified: unipoints (n = 24; 18.4%), bipoints (n = 18; 13.8%), and geometrics (n = 2; 1.5%), with the majority of the collection made up by fragments exhibiting both manufacturing traces and impact fractures, though not complete enough to determine the original form (n = 86; 66.1%). Unipoints exhibit notches on their left and/or right sides around their midline indicating fixed hafting using ligatures (Fig. 2, D and E). Similar notching attributable to hafting measures was also observed on a number of the bipoints (Fig. 2, C and F) while others, such as the geometrics, show no signs of having been fixed to a shaft (Fig. 2, A and B). Decoration or grooves for holding poison (10, 11) were only found on a single point (Fig. 2C). All points are made on Cercopithecid long bone.

The hafting and launch mode for the bone points are determined through the combined consideration of the form of the point (size, weight, and proximal morphology), use wear (hafting and impact), and comparison to ethnographic observations of arboreal mammal hunting. Before the introduction of the shotgun, bows and arrows and blowguns were the weapons of choice for hunting monkeys in South America, Asia, and Africa (12–16). Both these technologies require small, light points with the only difference being that arrow tips were fixed (hafted) to a lightweight shaft, while blow-gunning requires a long and exceptionally light dart to be fletched with an equally lightweight stuffing to create a seal within the blowgun. These technologies are made from plant and/or osseous materials—the choice of species being dependent on what is available in the environment. Lacing the points with poison is also a common feature (14–19). Of note here, the use of bones from hunted monkeys to produce projectile points has been recorded in recent times (20).

We can rule out the use of the Fa-Hien Lena unipoints and the larger bipoints as blowgun darts as they are morphologically unsuitable for this launch mode—being too short, too heavy, and having being hafted. Instead, they display design and use wear for fixed hafting (notches, shoulders, and wear to proximal edge) to a thin—less than 1 cm thick—shaft as inferred by proximal width of the points (median, 3.5 mm). Furthermore, the dominance of distal-mesial fragments within the recovered assemblage is consistent with osseous projectile point collections (21). They also commonly display step-terminating bending fractures and spin-offs to their distal extremity, damage considered to be diagnostic impact fractures for brittle solids (22, 23). While differentiating between arrow and spear points on use wear alone is currently untenable, the size of the Fa-Hien Lena points is too small for a single-pointed spear, and, while consistent with those that would tip a multipronged spear, this weapon would be ineffective for the environment and prey present in this context as closed forest environments do not allow for the lengthy arced trajectory that these weapons typically require.

Thus, the small size, light weight, fixed hafting, presence of hunting-consistent impact fractures on distal extremities, assemblage composition, and ethnographic analogies combine to indicate that the bow and arrow was in use at Fa-Hien Lena from at least 48 to 34 ka cal. BP (Fig. 2 and figs. S3 and S4). The use of the bow and arrow is further supported by the fact that the zooarchaeological prey mortality profiles based on dental eruption and wear suggest that prime-aged adult monkeys were targeted (4)—this projectile technology allowed for the deliberate targeting of specific individuals. In contrast, the use of traps in the capture of semi-arboreal taxa usually results in mortality profiles similar to those in natural populations (24, 25).

The geometrics, on the other hand, do not display clear evidence for fixed hafting and may represent fishing gorges similar to those found in Later Stone Age African (26) and Late Holocene East Coast Australian contexts. Fish remains were found in all phases of Fa-Hien Lena, with two families—silurids (catfish) and cyprinids (carp)—identified (4). Ethnoichtyological studies from Sri Lanka show that these fish are caught using a variety of techniques, including the use of ichthyotoxic plants, spearing, line fishing, and the use of cane baskets and nets (27, 28). Alternatively, these small, carefully shaped points could have functioned as barbs within snares or netted traps—the use of such technology noted for catching both arboreal and ground-dwelling prey (29, 30). As outlined below, evidence for the processing of skins and plant fibers is abundant at this site, so the use of snares or nets is supported by additional lines of evidence.

Analysis of the metric data suggests that the bone projectile points increase gradually in absolute length between phase D and phase A at Fa-Hien Lena. This expansion in artifact size correlates with an increase in the exploitation of larger mammals, particularly Suidae, Cervidae, and Bovidae (4), demonstrating fluidity in the developed hunting technology. This toolset mirrors the quartz microlith assemblage—which may also have tipped arrows—recovered from the site, which also showed very little change in dimension and raw material during the c. 40 ka that Fa-Hien Lena was occupied (9).

Four artifacts constituting a different bone-based technology were recovered from phase C, dating to 13 to 12 ka cal. BP (Fig. 2, I to K). These pieces have been flaked into shape and resemble cutting or scraping tools made in stone. Yet another approach to osseous technology found in phase C contexts at Fa-Hien Lena is a single deer antler blank made using the groove-and-splinter technique (Fig. 3C) and another in the younger phase B. No other antler-based technology has yet been found.

Plant- and/or skin-working technologies

An additional 29 bone implements display morphologies and wear consistent with use as awls, pegs, wedges, and lissoir—tools associated with the working of skins and/or plant fibers (Fig. 3). Traditionally, discussion of the origin and development of clothing has been tied to the need to protect the body from the cold (31). However, the Sri Lankan evidence suggests that clothing development may represent another technology that could be molded to suit the circumstances—in this case, perhaps as a layer of protection from insect-borne disease.

The three modified (flaked) Cercopithecid canines fit comfortably into this skin/plant working techno-complex, as does a single barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak) molar that has been flaked to accentuate the sharp tip (Fig. 3F). A final find that supports the working of animal skins and/or plant fibers at Fa-Hien Lena is a carefully shaped bone ellipse from phase A (Fig. 4A). Each side is marked with regularly spaced lithic-cut notches—19 on the left and 10 on the right (Fig. 4B). Several very shallow cut marks are also visible down each edge. The tip has accrued extensive rounding and polish with a large chip taken out of one face, while the base has been snapped in antiquity. The size, shape, and use wear of the piece could suggest use as a shuttle or mesh stick/gauge for constructing nets (32). The even spacing of the notches down each side of the piece could coincide with the spacing of knots and loops (33) and, as nets are exceptionally useful in catching both arboreal and aquatic resources, would be perfectly suited to the Sri Lankan environment. Alternatively, it may represent a decorated “spatula,” though it would be too thin for practical use (34).

•  Download high-res image
•  Open in new tab
•  Download Powerpoint

Symbolic and social technologies

Evidence for symbolic and/or social behaviors include three marine shell beads: two made from the apex of Conus spp. (phases D and B; Fig. 4, C to E) and one from a mud snail (Nassariidae) (phase C; Fig. 4G). Each displays a single perforation and extensive wear (rounding, polishing, and key-holing) from use (Fig. 4, D and F). This rounding and polish is so extensive that all signs of flaking and/or grinding from the reduction of the shell into a disc form are completely absent. The preference for white, bright, shiny, and round qualities in the shells selected for beads is therefore similar at this Sri Lankan site to what is observed at other H. sapiens sites of similar age (35, 36). No economic marine shell or any marine fish bones—with the exception of several shark teeth—were found at the site, indicating that either the people who used Fa-Hien Lena visited the coast to collect these materials or had contact with groups living on the coast. Given that stable carbon and oxygen isotope information from human tooth enamel at the nearby site of Batadomba-Lena implies year-round tropical forest foraging, trading between groups focusing on different ecologies seems more probable (2, 3).

Completely unique to the site are three large beads made entirely of red ochre nodules, one found in phase B (8.7 to 8 ka cal. BP) and two with missing provenance (from excavations before 2010, Fig. 4, H, J, and O). Unlike the 136 other fragments of yellow, red, and mica colorants that exhibit striations from grinding and scraping to produce powdered pigment—only one of the beads shows any sign of grinding or scraping of its surface (Fig. 4J). Instead, all three have been perforated with c. 3-mm holes, the edges of which show signs of stringing (Fig. 4I). The higher surfaces of each ochre bead exhibit extensive rounding and polish, indicating that they have rubbed against a soft surface such as skin or hide. As far as we are aware, no other ochre beads have been reported for any other Pleistocene or Early Holocene–aged contexts anywhere in the world—instead, more durable beads (such as those made in shell or bone) have been found colored with pigment, either incidentally (transfer from the body/clothing) or deliberately (35). At Fa-Hien Lena, no traces of colorants were observed on the shell beads, possibly owing to the fact that they were recovered during wet sieving and later washed.

Silver (mica) pigments are the dominant colorant in the assemblage, followed by dark-to-bright reds, and then bright yellow. Mica nodules are exceptionally small in most cases, averaging just over 1 cm in maximum dimension. The 31.5-g specimen shown in Fig. 4N was the largest colorant piece recovered and displays significant grinding and rubbing facets. If mica was available in large nodules, as this example indicates, the small finds then suggest that this type of pigment was regularly reduced to near exhaustion.