This Artifact Was Unknown Before Ötzi the Iceman [2:55]

YouTube ^ | September 25, 2025 | Dr. Smiti Nathan

[SunkenCiv]

It would work, but those prehistoric music fans probably still used 8 track.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[gnarledmaw]

Ya, Ive seen it used as the rubber mallet of knapping, or maybe a better description is like all those irons in the golf bag that non-golfers cant quite figure out.

When the object has already started to take form and the bulk has been bashed away with the hammer stone a long thick piece of antler is used to begin developing the tool side and narrowing it down to and edge without cracking the thicker spine part. Then after that a smaller rock or antler are used more through pressure, not blows, to flake the sharp edge.

[gnarledmaw]

The waist and the butt...

Not her, the tool.

The waist is in the wrong place for a drill. Whether its a drill or fire spindle the waist should be somewhere between middle and the contact point. The higher the waist the more likely the long lever created causes a slight movement to cause the contact point to skip.

Though its admittedly hard to see since we are only shown this one side and angle of the tool, the butt is too blunt and the appearance of partial tapering is actually due to part of the side of the backend of the tool having been split off through use or decay. If the back end of the drill is too thick it creates too much friction and wont spin.

[Cold Heart]

‘Huge piece of flint found in shallow water’

Somebody lost a weapon in a boating accident?

[Telepathic Intruder]

I wish I could do that myself. It looks like a very useful if not profitable hobby.

[enumerated]

I’ve always been amazed how often fingernails are the perfect tool - just hard enough to scrape off the bad part, but not so hard that they damage the good part.

Plus, they are so handy - always literally right at the tip of your fingers - and they grow back if you mess them up.

I keep mine real short

[Red Badger]

Yep, somebody lost a valuable piece of trade goods a long time ago.................

[gnarledmaw]

Not quite, its the pressure and angle variation on the backend that causes the butt end of the spindle to be unstable which causes the tool end to skip.

[GingisK]

This Artifact Was Unknown Before Ötzi the Iceman

So, Ötzi was the first to have one?

[Its all in the title. ;-D]

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, he was the inventor. Way outta patent though.

[GingisK]

Way outta patent though

Good. Now I can start my own company.

[Rockingham]

I recall seeing Tom Oher on an episode of Mountain Men use a deer antler point to work a flint blank into a replica Native American lance point. Apparently, using antler, bone, or hard wood to fashion or renew a cutting edge on a flint blade is known as pressure knapping. Budding anthropologists can even buy kits to help them hone their skills.