Form, Function and Fauna: Bone tools in the Philippines

Marian C. Reyes-Magloyuan* and Maricar B. Belarmino

Tool use is considered one of the defining hallmarks of what it means to be human. From the oldest intentionally modified stone tools in East Africa, recorded at more than three million years ago, to the advent of bone tools appearing during the Oldowan Period, complete bones of megafauna were used as hammerstones, while others were shaped and knapped into tools. In Southeast Asia, bone-based technologies intensified and became a major component of toolkits during the second half of the Last Termination of the Pleistocene into the Holocene as a response to changing environments in the region, coinciding with the diversity of animals hunted from various available landscapes and seascapes. An increase in the use of point forms (e.g., perforators, projectile armatures) occurred in eastern Island Southeast Asia, while hafted and composite implements were seen in areas as far as New Guinea and southern Malay peninsula, and Java. In the Philippines, there is limited published work discussing bone tools from archaeological sites. This paper will present the identified worked bones from the national zooarchaeological collections against a regional perspective. Samples of presumed blank and potential preforms observed among the collections will be assessed in an attempt to understand the manufacture process, tool use, activities, and environments from the sites. Identification of archaeological bone tools at various stages of production will further our understanding and interpretation of sites and human behaviour. From this study on Philippine materials, this paper aims to broaden the discourse on prehistoric bone tool traditions.