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Humans

Stone Age Europeans used human bones to make arrowheads

By Michael Marshall

18 December 2020

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Ancient hunters may have made spear points or arrowheads out of human bone

David Lyons/Alamy

Stone Age hunters in northern Europe made the sharp ends of their weapons from a surprising raw material: human bone. The choice may have had a symbolic purpose, such as imbuing the arrows with the skill of a dead expert hunter.

Before the arrival of farmers, Europe was inhabited by Stone Age hunter-gatherers. They roamed a landscape very different to today. The planet was deep in a glacial period, so lots of water was locked up in ice sheets at the poles – and sea levels…

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