Stone age people made hundreds of these...why?

[@StefanMilo]

Click here sbird.co/3VA0HUi and use my code STEFAN to get 55% OFF your first month at Scentbird. What’s your favorite fragrance? Comment below!

[@Samuel-q7t9e]

God bless, has anyone asked the Inuit or Khoisan or San or other groups what they would use them for…….or if they recognize them……god bless

[@telebubba5527]

@gaslitworldf.melissab2897 Their world was different from ours in that 'religion' was not separated from real life. It was all intertwined and they never thought of it being 'religious'. In fact, our concept of 'religion' is only some 5000 years old. You only have to take a look at tribal communities, like Papuans or Amazone and maybe even Africa to get some understanding of how it works.

[@telebubba5527]

Do they have Stegosaurus smell? Otherwise dilophosaurus will do.

[@InuitWomen_]

Great video Stefan In the culture of the Basque people there is a rital baton called a 'Makila'.

[@Nmethyltransferase]

Either grow out the beard as well, or get rid of the mustache.

[@jamesdeek7039]

Funny how when i was in school i hated studying and learning, now that im an old man, all i want to do is absorb information. I love your channel

[@magellanicspaceclouds]

I loved learning since young age and I will never understand people that want to keep working tedious jobs forever because they're afraid they'll be bored in retirement. How can anyone be bored when there's such a vast amount of knowledge and languages to learn?!

[@apcolleen]

A dispassionate teacher can suck the life out of any topic.

[@Valdagast]

Ah, but now you get to choose when to learn and what to learn.

[@omarsabih]

You just grew an internet addiction.

[@jamesdeek7039]

@@omarsabih I like listening to this stuff when I'm at the gym. It's better than gaming all day I suppose

[@HOTLVE]

I am Muskogee Creek and my people as well as other tribes would use devices like these for straightening arrows and atlatl shafts that were the right diameter but were bent by heating up the area of the shaft that was bent and holding it straight until it cooled sometimes you would need two. They can be made from bone, antler, wood, and stone.

[@Iflie]

That makes far more sense.

[@eekee6034]

I can see that. I'm sure making rope with the 1-hole batons wouldn't be the best way of doing it.

[@Sam-xk5er]

That's a very extravagant way to straighten a spear , considering I can just use my hands feet and a fire and get a perfectly straight spear.

[@zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz736]

This is most certainly not the intended use and cause of widespread proliferation of these items. It doesn't even hold up to the most miniscule scrutiny that a child could devise.

[@Iflie]

@@zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz736 except finding items that look the same in tribal hunting people is how historians find evidence about what it does. Who wants to hold wood that's hot, possibly steaming, by hand?

[@lacethefirebender2099]

Funny thing about rope making is when twisting the 3 initial fibers together, 2 twist one way and the 3rd twists the opposite way. Now look at the perforated baton with 4 holes. The 2 middle holes show spirals that go one way, the last hole shows the spiral going the other way. But the broken hole up towards the top is also twisting the same direction as the hole nearest to the base. In my opinion that suggests that they used this specific baton to make rope, the one hole towards the top broke, so they ended up carving a 4th hole so they could continue to use it

[@jimmybgood982]

possible but there a much easier ways to make rope with a wooden cross like how chinese did it

[@tosehoed123]

@@jimmybgood982 Doesnt mean all stone age people knew that

[@YouBazinga]

Ropes and knots are so underrated on the list of most important inventions.

[@cdineaglecollapsecenter4672]

Or women's.

[@FerociousSniper]

Take the taughtline hitch for example. It can slide along a length of cordage, but tightens down on itself and doesn't move under tension. Extremely useful, and easy to learn.

[@YouBazinga]

@@cdineaglecollapsecenter4672 Corrected.

[@jackread7406]

@@cdineaglecollapsecenter4672 I LOVE WO MENS

[@Rough_cut613]

💯 rope making on a semi industrial scale truly took us out of the medieval era and into the modern age. It's a fascinating rabbit hole to go down......for a huge fucking nerd lol

[@victorba4128]

I wondered if my message had ever reached you, I am now over the moon with this video! I knew you'd make this subject justice: wonderful interview with the author, very insightful theories, video footage of the actual rope making demonstration (!) and tons of very interesting and positive comments! I've never been happier about mine getting buried: let's solve this mistery together people, let's reclaim our ancient knowledge! Thanks a lot Stefan! Cheers Victor

[@blacksmith67]

Excellent article to bring to Stefan. Thank you for being the spark that ignited this excellent video.

[@Wallyworld30]

Nice work bud.

[@abisu5273]

Thanks from me too. I love how he looks at recent (Innuit) practices to shine a light. I hope they teach that archaeology school.

[@voyaristika5673]

Thanks, Victor. Fascinating video!

[@StefanMilo]

The man himself! Thank you for your email Victor.

[@ropace37]

I believe the batons could’ve acted as a sort of “multi-tool” for the prehistoric peoples. The shape, the different material, the different number of holes, etc, etc. They could be used for everything from straightening wooden shafts, rope making, cracking bone for marrow, flint napping, fishhooks, stripping bark, hammering, securing axe heads, jewelry making, the list goes on.

[@dnivek12]

Not sure what you're talking about with the different materials on most of the things you mentioned.. he specifically said they were made out of antler. The smallest of them seems to be at least over 6 inches so I'm not sure fish Hook would be in the cards and Bone and ivory can be brittle so hammering would be out of the question. They also weren't Sharp so I'm not sure how they could strip anything.. and stone Axe heads were usually secured with rope you have to remember this was the Stone age play they hadn't even discovered bronze yet.

[@ropace37]

They’ve found these type of artifacts made from antler, bone, ivory, and wood etc. Therefore “Different” materials. Don’t know what video you watched, but believe it was mentioned in this one. If you’re not sure about what someone means in their comment, maybe go back and rewatch before attempting to discredit the idea.

[@lettersquash]

@@ropace37 A "multi-tool", you say, but all of them made from different materials? So, just tools then. And yet, weirdly, rather than make one of them roughly hammer shaped and another a good shape for scraping, and another small and sharp for a fish-hook, they're all approximately the same shape and size. I think we can easily discredit the idea. If the shape is the same, but sometimes they were made from different materials, that suggests their function had little to do with the material itself and more to do with the shape, and that also suggests that it's very likely a single function. The different materials would be to do with what's available in an area, or perhaps the traditions of particular cultures.

[@michaelhernandez410]

Looks like an arrow wrench.

[@Snpdrgon]

Omg, the post I just made has almost the identical first sentence!

[@CorwinFound]

I think in the modern day we forget how vital rope would have been in those times. No nails or screws, limited glue, extremely labour intensive material cutting. Rope or cordage is a construction material, used for tents/tarps, and many things I can't even think of. This is the most reasonable hypothesis I've ever heard for the batons. Also, a single hole baton might be used by one individual. Embedded in the ground it could be used to create tension and feed the cord material evenly during braiding. Thanks so much for discussing this new info. The batons have been such a mystery. This may not be _the_ answer, but it is the first really reasonable one I've heard.

[@joshuahadams]

Braiding long lengths of hide cordage comes to mind. Coming from an Inuit perspective, a lot of our traditional cordage was hide. A large animal like a walrus or bearded seal is skinned in a spiral, it’s hide effective unwound and then dried into leather to be used in lashings or other applications other places where fibre rope would be used. Using a few of these assist in drying out the hide to prevent rot comes to mind. Thread it through the eyes, hammer it into the moss on a sunny and windy place and you’ll have reliable cordage in a few days. Add in that this was made of _mammoth_ ivory and you have a huge supply of hide for lashings at hand.

[@najroe]

cordage is definitely among top 10 of important things to primitive living, cutting tools, firemaking, storage containers, shelter (clothing) are others, and yhey are more or less intertwined, having cordage makes the others easier, cutting tool nakes the others easier, fire...

[@MAGAman-uy7wh]

Letting my imagination run free, I wondered how much a mammoth hide would weigh. The stone tools of that time were very sharp if knapped properly. I am certain that individuals had skills for any task at hand and probably "specialized" in tool making of each sort. Deer hide can make excellent clothing, while hides of thicker properties would make good foot-ware and so on. The materials used to make a rope would probably not survive the centuries, but the tool used to make the rope would survive longer. Flint knapping and shaft selection or modification may not have been done by the same individual, while affixing the "blade" to the shaft may have required another individual with that specialty, and actual hunting another skill set. This would give the death of an individual significant meaning to the group and may have lead to belief systems to pass on the knowledge to the survivors. Women were very central to these skill sets being passed down as they probably maintained the camp while the men were hunting and had the time and opportunity to pass on the skills. Just some thoughts.

[@JohnVance]

@@joshuahadams I really like this explanation. The primitive knurling around the holes could have helped keep it taught as well.

[@fleetskipper1810]

@@joshuahadamsI think that you’re right. I noticed that the batons included in the grave all had a sharpened pointy end that suits them to be driven into the Earth to hold them in place while stringing cordage or strips of animal hide between them to dry strings out or straighten them or something like that.

[@haraldisdead]

They're obviously for measuring spaghetti.

[@sirrathersplendid4825]

Certainly true if they’d been discovered in Italy!

[@GlobalGeorgeIR]

I'm Italian, I can indeed confirm 😂

[@InvestorAcademyPodca]

Beat me to it.

[@sonder122]

No, no I saw the vintage BBC documentary on the spaghetti growers of Italy and the terrible spaghetti blight they suffered years ago. You don’t need to measure it, it grows to a certain length naturally.

[@mrbaab5932]

When did Italians steal noodles from China and call it spaghetti and linguine? Marco Polo?

[@melissabruner1224]

As someone who does all kinds of knitting, crocheting, making lace, making yarn, the use of these items for something like rope or cordage makes a lot of sense. I can see in my mind how it could be used to feed something through something else.

[@catinthehat906]

It makes more sense to me that the ivory stick is rotated using the leverage it provides and that causes the individual twines to be twisted tightly together. That's how ropes were always traditionally made.

[@ScotHarkins]

My wife, a fiber artist, immediately took the idea of a “diz” for aligning fibers, and with multiple holes also thought of cord or rope making. Also sometimes used for stripping the outer layers off of young branches or fibrous sticks for whatever…straightening or stripping or both.

[@kindGSL]

The second I saw the one with four holes, I thought of "card weaving" which is 100% worth looking into if you have never heard of it. By using different colors in the holes of the cards, and numbers of them, woven fabric can be made with really intricate patterns. Mostly used for making things like belts and trims by the Vikings if I'm remembering it correctly, or May be the Celts. I don't really recall.

[@notashroom]

I was thinking the ones with one hole might be for straightening shafts for arrows or small spears, but I don't know how well they would be suited to that task. Rope or other cord making makes sense for the ones with multiple holes, but I love the idea of them being used for weaving like card weaving. Maybe they were used for both? Nothing says a tool can only ever be used one way, like how I have used screwdrivers for several things that had nothing to do with screws. 🤔

[@miketacos9034]

Does she use diz knots when she is stripping? I'm sorry.

[@normsti000]

My thought it was to make rope.

[@maggiem.5904]

Fascinating topic! I also immediately thought of tools for spinning and plying fiber. The ones in the Prince’s burial, with a single hole in a wide paddle-like circle, and the shaft tapering to a point at the other end, made me think of drop-spindles. Some of the narrow ones could be used as shuttles for making nets. Or they could be used like a turnbuckle, to tighten a cord that has stretched. You could use it as a handle for pulling a rope or cord, or maybe in building wattle-and-daub houses or fences. I hope these researchers can find out more about these things! I’m curious - were they able to identify the type of plant fibers in the holes? I’m thinking of nettles, flax, willow, cedar bark. Native Americans along the Pacific Northwest coast used fine but tough roots of Sitka Spruce trees where they became exposed along banks of estuaries to weave baskets, hats, cloaks etc.

[@CapitalismSuxx]

I have no idea what it is called in English but I have seen old Swedish tools for making rope and they look like this. If you google images for "repslagning verktyg" you can see a few of them. Some of them are round, not rectangular. Pieces with only one hole can be used for making a simple ribbon weaving called "brickbandsvävning".

[@kellywalker1664]

You're making me think of spindle whorls; little decorated clay beads from meso America and Africa, which are used for yarn making, I believe.

[@andrewmole745]

It is interesting to see that some of the holes on the tools have pegs in them…

[@drfill9210]

I just googled Swedish Ropee making tool.And the object is the exact same as what we just saw

[@RegebroRepairs]

When they all have rotating pegs in them, but yes, this is before the realization that you could do that, so it totally makes sense that this is an earlier version.

[@maggiem.5904]

@@RegebroRepairs Perhaps some of the prehistoric ones did have pegs in them. Maybe the spiral scored lines in the holes were for screwing in the pegs - you would just have to be careful which way you rotated it. Or perhaps some were used as cranks to add twist, as in some of the photos of repslagning. We can’t assume that prehistoric people hadn’t figure out some of these things over the millennia.

[@boss-lyfe]

My guess is the ones with multiple holes was for making rope, and the single hole was to tie the rope down into the ground like we do with tent stakes.

[@cocobunitacobuni8738]

This was my immediate instinct when I saw the 4 together. Perfect to drive into the ground as an anchor. It could anchor other things as well that we may not be aware of. Sweat lodges, scaffolds etc.

[@steveclark5357]

the ones with 3 or 4 holes were used in making cordage or rope, the ones with 1 hole were arrow shaft or spear shaft straighteners the green shaft would be heated over fire and the tool would be used as a fulcrum to straighten the shaft

[@EdwardPike]

U beat me to it. We made rope in boy scouts with those.

[@steveclark5357]

@@EdwardPike they are still used today in the remote areas of south america and in the remote himalayan regions where they still join many villages to rebuild the rope suspension bridges

[@JonnoPlays]

Story checks out. The one hole variation for arrows makes sense because you would need a lot of strength to draw the arrow through it. Requiring a strong material (bone stronger than wood) as well as a good size hand piece to hold on to. Thus there being only one hole.

[@DIREWOLFx75]

Yeah, noted the same and just went "huh???" when this is talked about as a mystery or something.

[@steveclark5357]

@@JonnoPlays the larger ones found in the burial find are very large seeming to indicate that they were used for spear shaft straighteners , the atl atl has been in use for 30,000 years or so , but a straight shaft was critical for accuracy,

[@harrywilkinson3353]

Arrow straighteners are just a hole in a piece of flat material. You heat the arrow and use the hole to apply torque to the arrow at a precise position. The serrations would help grip the shaft in the required spot and help apply torque. Different holes for different sized shafts? The Prince burial perforated instruments were a good handle and hole combo - theres a reason current spanners are ergonomically shaped like they are.

[@buffalobob2002]

I thought the same thing. But this is way before arrows.

[@sjohnson4882]

@@buffalobob2002 So spear or atlatl shafts.

[@jeanettewaverly2590]

Shaft straightener is the first thing that came to my mind.

[@siddharthshekhar909]

​@@buffalobob2002who really knows when bows and arrows were first made ? Maybe they were made much earlier than archaeologists thought. In general, people seem to have been more advanced than thought. Think of the pyramids, the Stonehenge, the preshistoric temple in present day turkey.

[@SeverusFelix]

​@@siddharthshekhar909yeah, we know *at least* how far back archery goes, but a wooden bow isn't likely to last 80k years

[@Beardqt]

I just wanted to say thank you to this channel for caring, putting the time in to recognize the flaws and strengths of ancient peoples, for having the wherewithal to show us your findings in extensive detail. It definitely matters who had conducted the initial findings but without middlemen to show the world; to decipher it.. a lot of us, me included, wouldn't/couldn't have the patience to do that.

[@resned5340]

When aliens find the toothbrushes with holes drilled in them by ultralight backpackers they are gonna be so confused

[@StatiCraft3712]

Kinda what I thought right away too lol

[@azzamziply3039]

Yea anything minimalist do is out of the norm but very practical

[@JeepnHeel]

Lol, if someone finds my boxes of DIY alcohol stove testing parts they are gonna think I was some weird tin can alchemist

[@John_Redcorn_]

Wouldnt a true ultralight backpacker just forego the toothbrush altogether tho? 🤔

[@StatiCraft3712]

@@John_Redcorn_ a true ultralight backpacker would replace their limbs with aluminum prosthetics

[@Mysucculentchinesemeal]

Cordage making is one of the most essential tasks to survival. Hanging food, making shelter, etc. there are infinite uses for it. Even if they weren’t using it to transport food it would need to be hung to dry.

[@Roopfert]

I was confused by the specific justification for needing rope, like just for hauling food? It's a much more fundamental tool than that, for things as simple as fixing two objects together, tying off a rolled up skin or bundle etc. It's still an essential tool imo

[@lemonator8813]

​@Roopfert it's one of the the first things you need in a survival situation. Which would've been just normal living for our ancestors

[@wgmbh1]

I’m a fiber artist and I’ve made plenty of rope and I totally agree with your point except that you are to rotate the batons not just pull it through. As always outstanding work !

[@WasatyPanKazimierz]

I wholeheartedly believe that rope/string technology is the unsung hero of the human adventure. A popular book on the use of rope from prehistory to the space age would be a banger.

[@leutnantobvious4340]

thats why sailing ships, especially the peak time right before the first steel warships that changed the game, are MY favourite goto topic. woodwork,yes very impressive. but the rope involved, its just nuts. a ship half the size of an passenger airplane had 3-5 times more rope used on the ships than the airplane uses in cables today. Which human being is able to do more than the standard shoe knot today? mostly sailors or job related stuff, but thats it. everything useful was made out of rope not even 300 years ago. Horses and ropes ruled the world. the sheer amount of knot techniques to make the mast +sail hold in the winds and storms of the ocean, all the ropework to get up into the masts. mezmerizing. AND think about "Castaway" with Tom Hanks. he was totally fucked and stuck on this island, till he figured out what fibres to use to make rope and he was able to knot his raft together to give it a proper go. this is what makes this movie stand out, in castaway scenarios, cause it shows the human evolution from making fire to former peak technology, rope making and sailing.

[@sihamacue4545]

I think they were also handles for the rope. So the weight of the animal with the rope against their skin wouldnt hurt their hands.

[@urvideoizgay]

You should write it!!

[@wandapease-gi8yo]

Try “Women’s Work - the first 2000 years”. Not a feminist manifesto, but a work on String and fiber arts. Who needs to tie things up, make bags, etc. with women doing lots of the day to day work of gathering being able to bundle things up means that much more bunches of grass, twigs, etc? E. Wayland Barber PhD

[@irtnyc]

Ritual is always the lazy answer by people who don't know.

[@nitt3rz]

I remember about 25 odd years ago, Time Team went to the Cheddar caves to look at a Mesolithic site; and in a bit where Phil Harding was trying to make either leather straps or rope he used a baton with a single hole & a couple of the academics who had come to watch were shocked that these sticks had a practical use.

[@colsandannie]

This is a very underrated comment.

[@nitt3rz]

@@colsandannie A lot of my comments hardly seem to go un-noticed.

[@jcollins3182]

I was looking through the comments to see if anyone mentioned this!! He made the tool incredibly quickly with a sharpened flint, including the grooves. They found that it grabbed a rope strung through it and could be used as a kind of winch or handle with the rope. It’s worth a watch for sure, the video is on youtube.

[@georgedunkelberg5004]

@@colsandannie Does the word..."purchase" or "leverage" describe a creative human solutions to it's amplifications of strength? ie. your arm was "wrenched out it's socket?"

[@liawatson5789]

​@@jcollins3182What's the name of the episode?

[@AA_Warlok]

I can think of several ideas 1. Rope making as you mentioned 2. Setting traps for hunting 3. Hanging on a belt or hook as club 4. As a Lathe base, clickspring has a similar wooden design. 5. Clay work tools 6. As part of a belt to carry several bags 7. Ritual purposes 8. Sizing branches for building 9. As part of a tent like structure for easy to move shelters. Probably all of the above and more, a versatile tool would have been highly valued. The ones buried with the body looked especially great for setting traps as ground pegs.

[@philiplstrom]

I for one am impressed with stefans barber. Who managed to give him three distinct looks in the same video. Shout out to him/her!

[@jackread7406]

IMPRESSED BY A MORON

[@jameswingert9596]

Also they can be Shaft Straighteners with one hole. They're used to straighten shafts of wood for arrow or spear. Quick mind blowing fact: At least Clovis culture had the ingenuity to have a hunting weapon system of having a reusable spear. The end of the spear had a hole drilled into it and they carried several detachable spear points that they could stab with and then replace the spear point with another one. That way they only had to carry one spear and several spear points. And in making those they used a shaft straightener. At least that's the story for the Clovis site in Southern Arizona I visited. Very cool video Stefan.

[@Skinflaps_Meatslapper]

Single holes can still be used for rope as well, you just have to use more than one together for however many plies you needed.

[@jameswingert9596]

@@Skinflaps_Meatslapper yes. I can totally see how that would work too. When I saw in the video the one hole one it reminded me of the shaft straightener recovered at the Santa Cruz River site in Southern Az. But after seeing the whole video I was like oh yeah rope. That makes sense. But i left the shaft straightener post because it's interesting. thanks for chiming in. appreciated.

[@Skinflaps_Meatslapper]

It's entirely possible that some had more than one use. Why carry a shaft straightener and basically the same thing for making cordage if one tool can do both? Although, the spiral texture inside might not be the best for arrow shafts, you probably wouldn't want them gouging the surface of a freshly made shaft. El Senor, you linked to an atlatl, not a shaft straightener...those are generally rounded rocks with a groove to allow someone to press on a heated shaft until it's cool without burning themselves in the process. Although, keeping with the same theme as above, one could theoretically produce a shaft straightener, cordage tool, and atlatl all in one.

[@grantschiff7544]

Except for the twist carvings

[@kiryllis5823]

11:18 Another interesting observation is that they seem to be found (for whatever reason) near/within mountain ranges

[@annepoitrineau5650]

I love the final quote: the easiest way to be wrong about our ancestors is to underestimate them. I also thought that these batonns needed to be carried around themselves: whole=around the waist on a rope or cross body. Their shape must have made them ideal to use to scrap away ice and snow for lichen. Of course they had ropes: the net with shells on the skeleton's head is a finer version of ropes.

[@Chompchompyerded]

Yes. They had to have something to scrape the snow, ice, and lichens off their cars in the winter. No? They didn't have cars? Oh.

[@wretchedmess]

Seriously, I imagine they were as intelligent as we are! I believe they would adapt and survive if they were dropped into our world, I'm not sure if the opposite would be true...

[@ottoginafiel5468]

​@@wretchedmessthe idiots were killed off by harsh winters every year and predators.

[@jangleleg117]

The skeleton at 11:56? Those are sea shells, not rope. But yes, rope was definitely in their inventory and necessary for survival in many situations.

[@gudgengrebe]

Yes and their clothes were sewn together with smaller twine.

[@emmahardesty4330]

I think you've got it: fiber-making tool enormously useful: rope, mats, nets, food drying out of reach; magine women sitting around making cord for many uses; children, men sitting around doing the same. Handy fiber and as one person pointed out, also for measuring spaghetti.

[@raccoonresident5760]

Guys, the wear patterns are on the holes. It’s for dried sinew. There is a piece missing. It’s the plug that goes in to the hole.

[@jameswright4640]

Brilliant stuff. Even today, if you're in the field with a handful of marines and ask, does anyone have a bit of extra rope or cord, you can believe that 8 of 10 will immediately whip out the 200 yards of parachute cord they put in their pocket as soon as they heard they were going out. Regardless of environment. Rope is fastening, closing, holding, traps, confining, tying, knots, and a hundred other things. It's one of the easiest ways to harness a small team's strength for a common goal. (Usually dragging like in the video. :)) I love this theory.

[@bathsheba.b8656]

Exactly, as a countrywoman I always have baler twine and a sharp penknife with me, even I am going out to a cocktail party.

[@JoshBradley-l9l]

“Sometimes we eat a sandwich, sometimes we build the Taj Mahal” might be my new favourite Stefan milo quote

[@jwstex]

It is certainly illustrative of a keen use of vocabulary, to paint a picture of us as a whole. Or so Jay thinks.

[@jackread7406]

MY EENDING WILL BE DIFFERENT

[@lettersquash]

Just found your channel, Stefan - looks great. This video is excellent. I had a thought about the batons with a single hole. If they're not broken (which would probably be obvious from analysis), a rope could still be fashioned with a baton with just one hole. Fibres are twisted around through the hole, and another strand of fibres twisted next to the shaft, which will act as a support and separator. The second bundle will be trying to twist (or rather, untwist) in one direction, but the shaft will stop it rotating around the first. It might even be possible to use this for three bundles to be combined, but rope can be made with two (or then doubled again). This idea is perhaps supported by the fact that several batons have concave parts right next to the hole, which would also help to locate the external bundle(s). Some examples don't seem to be of the same ilk though (like the first one in the video, which has no spiral scoring and is very pointed at one end, with lots of notches around the broad end). It could serve the same purpose, but doesn't seem best suited to it, though what else it might be for I've no idea. But if you're making rope, and skinning animals, there might be a time when you want something a bit like a tent peg. You might want to stick a pointy spike somewhere that you can thread a rope through...? Anyhoo, thanks for a great video. Subbed.

[@tinkerstrade3553]

Arrow straightener and small game spear straightener. Also a rope braider, a timepiece, trail marker, climbing pinon, range finder, isolation monocular, and more. This was a Swiss Army knife, no wonder they were popular back when being a survivalist meant everyone. Ask an older Indian tribal member here in the states about them. I guess variations of this tool made it into the 20th Century.

[@LimabeanStudios]

This is where my head was at the whole video. A tool this prolific surely had more than one common use.

[@grantschiff7544]

Twist carvings for rope

[@lindyashford7744]

Not just rope makers, but tools for utilising rope effectively. For securing rope, for holding it in place, for wrapping it around, for tightening it, etc. and they would be so familiar with bone and thus it would be an available workable material. Putting holes in it an extension of fire making skills perhaps. These were resourceful beings who were good at surviving because they had ingenuity.

[@LannZimdars]

I watch all of your postings each time I see them. I love every minute of your professional documentaries. This subject has been one of the topics I have followed since High School. That was over 50 years ago and I have seen a lot of changes in this area. You have updated me so well. I will keep watching for sure. Thank you.

[@maureendoerner9002]

When I saw the multi-hole baton , I was reminded of leather rope making. After noting the striations around the hole ,I agree it is more likely for rope making. But I can also see using a one , two or three hole baton as a way to secure a rope on a back pack or travois. Inserting a rope into a hole ,wrapping it around the end and inserting the loose end into the remaining hole. Pull it tight, and your supplies are ready for travel.

[@AM-xo7lr]

Hey Steffi-boi and Viewers - not sure if you're aware of the videos of Sally Pointer here on YT, an experimental archaeologist specialising in prehistoric fibre and textile production methods. She has videos particularly focusing on the construction of cord and rope from plant materials, along with their known and hypothesized uses. It's incredibly interesting as these artifacts are so rarely given the profile they deserve within archaeology or for the interested public, although there are actually more preserved examples of these than people might assume - often due to immersion in bogs, etc. Always happy to steer a willing victim down another delightful archaeological rabbit hole...

[@christineg8151]

She actually did a test of this very theory! kzbin.info/www/bejne/bKjZlmaBgs2rmdksi=1uKwBio3n9dsvKsa Looks very plausible.

[@alisn.7998]

Sally Pointer knows her stuff! I learnt to make cordage from her videos, and you don’t need a fancy tool, but just your fingers. You can make thin cordage from, for eg., nettles, etc., and then twist the thin cordage with other thin cordage to make it thicker, and so on. Since then, I’ve made useful natural cordage of varying thicknesses and sometimes very long lengths, very quickly, with no tools at all. So I’m not sure that the holed bone/antler/ivory is necessarily a cord making tool, nice though it would be to have solved the mystery. The tool was clearly important to the owners, as otherwise some of them wouldn’t be decorated.

[@Snpdrgon]

Happy to be led, Captain!

[@catserver8577]

Tent spikes for yurts or other mobile homes? Rope went through them, which is why the stress on the single hole ones is there? Or, some other structural use? Or a fishing net handle?

[@charlesmoffitt4811]

They are shaft straighteners. I've used them for 60 years making atlatals and arrow shafts. You slide the batton on the shaft, add heat to area to straighten., put leverage on the spot with the batton handle. I learned it from an old man at the Qualla boundary Cherokee reservation in North Carolina.

[@koozdorah]

ai, pin this

[@therat1117]

That is almost certainly incorrect, for the simple reason that bows were not invented at the time these tools were used. There's also the issue that it would be far less effort to find a sapling, cut it down, denude it, and you have a quick and easy spear shaft that is straight enough for throwing or stick-throwing purposes. Plus, presumably the Palaeolithic tool-user was sophisticated enough to smooth out kinks using something similar to planing and lathing, both of which are conceptually simple and work really well on green wood.

[@eltomas3634]

Indeed one could be used as a shaft straightener or to apply force to something but not limited to an arrow tool. It seems like a handy device, almost like a multitool Swiss army knife. A rope maker, a rope anchor or hand hold, tensioner, applying pressure around arrowheads for wrapping or applying some kind of glue. If they were very common, they could have been used a a form of currency that could easily be traded or stockpiled. Possibly used in one of the many ways of making fire, just a handy thing to have that was valuable and readily used by almost everyone.

[@charlesmoffitt4811]

If you ever tried to make a spear shaft from a sapling you should know that as soon.as it starts to dry it warps, twist and bends in all directions. A 3/4 inch shaft is difficult to straighten without some focused leverage. The baton allows you to put pressure in the exact spot where need. Try making a straight spear with and without the baton a d you will quickly adapt it.

[@therat1117]

@@charlesmoffitt4811 Notice I said 'straight enough'. You don't need a perfectly straight spear to be functional for hunting, and a cut sapling will stay very straight. I have in fact, made walking sticks from saplings, which is fairly analogous. Plus, early humans would no doubt be intelligent enough to dry their wood evenly by controlling its moisture content (and is there anything better for that than living in a cave?)

[@spot1401]

tent string tensioners come to mind as well. tarps, traps, sails....

[@pms9838]

Spot on 😉 I think

[@hunterG60k]

Yes! I was thinking something along those lines. But why would they bury someone with something like that? I love and hate the mysteries of the ancient past 😅

[@TheHortoman]

My first thought when i started watching, started feeling dumb reading the other explanations until i found you, i suppose the theory has some weight then

[@alinaanto]

@@hunterG60kif they believed that the buried person takes with them the objects in the grave to another life/realm, then they would use those for their tents, sails or such

[@nuance9000]

Backpacks. Storage. Climbing...

[@perry3143]

There are clearly multiple uses, the ones with tons of shallow notches could have been rudimentary rulers. Some of the holes could align cordage for braiding or twisting into rope. Some of them may have been anchor holes used to fasten stones or maybe teeth to make various weapons/tools. Just replace bone in your head with different wooden tool handles. It was just their material of choice. The ones with a flat head, one hole and a pointy end remind me of some type of multi-tool. You could dig with the flat end, use the hole for leverage for breaking things and chisel with the pointy end.

[@Pammellam]

As an interesting aside, search for this: _Traditional rope making from straw Japanese style._ They can make rope from rice straw that is long, strong and very useful. And it is all done _by hand without any tools_ . Of course tools can be used to make it faster and easier. But farmers in Japan do this all the time by hand. I’m not saying this is a super ancient neolithic technique but it is very old here in Japan. It could be ancient. I’m not an expert and I don’t know but it is interesting nonetheless. Also these rope strands can be woven together to make straw sandals as well as ropes and many other things including baskets. Search for this example: _How to make straw Samurai Sandals_ The thinner strands can be combined to be thicker and very very strong. This technique is still used today here.

[@kuglepen64]

I can see that some of the tools have a pointed end, which reminded me of the very similar rope splicing tools (fids) of modern times.

[@moxiebombshell]

Yeah, as much as I'm usually happily ensconced on "Team Ritual," I have to say that in this case I really think the most likely purpose for these is for use in rope-making (or rope-related activities). I mean, the multi-holed one looks remarkably like something I saw still being used to make rope on a replica 17th or 18th century ship.

[@gl15col]

She was buried with them, so bet she was the best of her village at making/splicing rope and she was respected for that. As soon as you mentioned the pointed end, I remembered seeing something similar when looking up instructions for splicing floating rope for a boat, if it ain't broke don't re-design it!

[@brushcreekwoolworks2179]

The " baton " with holes in it where fibers were found. It's a diz, which is used in spinning fibers into thread or yarn. The diz is used to pull the prespun fibers into a long strip that is consistent in thickness before it's spun. It makes it easier to spin a thread that is consistent in thickness.

[@tracewallace23]

It should be noted that these were nomadic hunter-gatherers, (that didn't have a store to stop at and grab supplies from), that weren't on a "camping trip", they were walking for miles and miles every day, hunting for food, had to make camp at night, repair/fabricate tools, clothes, snacks etc., eat, sleep, and keep watch because we weren't the only apex predator around. Then, get up in the morning and do it all again. Every Single Day. Keeping that in mind Every single thing that you needed, you had to make from scratch (or possibly trade or get killed for it). And then you had to bring it with you or be prepared to make another one at a moments notice. All of that to say, Every single thing that we ever find with them (especially repeatedly), WAS Important to them at that time.

[@Patrik6920]

I think thats a bit of an exaggeration.. nomadic likely, but not moving camp every day, nomadic in a sense thay stayed and use resources for a while weeks-months perhaps even years. The first settled farmers who was settled that herded animals and grew crops was about 11,000 years ago (what we can prove anyway), but it must have been a gradual process from hunter/gatheres to settlers/farmers, could very well be some settled/faremd thousands of years earlier... as the only transfere of knowledge was in direct contact with other ppl/groups its very hard to pinpoint or say for absolute certainty... ..but i belive thay could have been tools used in weaving and/or fabrication of clothes and/or thread... as many seems to have been decorated, it wasent sometimg u used and threw away... thers also much smaller variants of bones that seemde to have been used as early buttons for clothes, and some definetly for weaving...

[@ianthepelican2709]

@@Patrik6920 I view the items buried with the bodies as being the tools of those artisans, not as provisions for any future afterlife but as indication of the status of who the person was before they died. As to the different types & sizes some strike me as being parts of a loom, others for hand working, others parts of primitive spinning wheels, needles, shuttles, rope making, essentially a range of things associated with working fibers into useful items. Usually made of bone/ivory for their strength over those of wood. I don't see this to be specific to either nomadic or settled people. The decorated items very likely being made as gifts.

[@Patrik6920]

​@@ianthepelican2709 "The decorated items very likely being made as gifts." .. its one possibility, but its atleast certain thay where seen as more than 'one use'/scrap tools .. Personally i have some favorite tools, and its not unresonable assume these ppl had too, possibly decorating them in personal ways... or as gift or to indicate a value, a special purpose or simillar... i dont know if any pattern can bee seen of how some was decorated... one can make the assuption a tool for a specific purpose was decorated so others understood it, but i have no clue if thats the case, if thers enugh of simillar items to draw any conclutions .. or it could simply just be decorations .. with or without any meaning ... somehing we still frequently do as humans .. regarding burial, yes its seen frequently in the past ppl was buried with valuble items, or items that was used in thier line of work (as seen as a value to the group/tribe etc..) ..a hunter with a decorative spear, a farmer with a goat etc..

[@mindymorgan8479]

I agree nomads were truly that. Nomads. Not always staying just 1 night. But not for a season either. They carried tools with them. And a stick to hit people with it and likely a leather strap to strap it to themselves.

[@michaelmcneil4168]

Nomads travel as a village. Not as individuals and families of two to so-many children. As a village they spead out individually making hunting groups to cover as wide an area as possible. These would divide themselves to smaller groups of individuals managing multiple tasks requiring holding animals in groups using pegs to hold them. Start from there.

[@susanohnhaus611]

Wow, my mind is spinning. As an archaeologist and fiber worker I can see these used for many may things. Rope making for this one is screamingly obvious. El Principe's perforated "batons" have the same spiral marks so I doubt they are tent pegs as some people suggest. However, El Principe is a big oops since we know it should be relabeled La Principessa. The grave assembly with her body are probably weaving tools. I can see them driven into the ground to guide fiber in weaving, like using a backstrap type of loom, sort of like are presently seen is southeast Asian weaving. And don't get me started on how old weaving is because when I went to college the Americas were populated starting 10,000 years ago by people who came over Berringia and see where that theory is now.

[@laurabrown7912]

My first though was weaving tools. I made a belt using cards, and these batons reminded me of it. Would love it if we were able to find some intact clothing/fabric. I think they would be beautiful.

[@Chompchompyerded]

I got thrown off by the idea that she was a he. The tool assemblage would of course be different. I can easily see these being used for weaving. Since they would not be working with looms, I can see them being used instead of the beater on a loom, as a way to pack the weft neatly in place, after they are threaded through the weft of a backstrap loom. This makes a lot more sense now! I think working with textiles has been around a lot longer than most people suspect. The thing is, men's tools are often made in part of stone, and therefore last a long time, but women's tools are usually made of less stern stuff, and don't stay around forever. Ours were the baskets, the wooden spoons, the digging sticks, the twine and the things which all rot away, so little remains to show what we were doing, even though the things which we were tasked with making were vital to the survival of our families. When you read accounts of primitive cultures, including the more recently contacted ones of the most remote parts of the Amazon Basin, or in the the last parts of Africa to be explored in the early part of the last century, you see that about the only thing that the men did was hunt, and make tools for hunting or trapping. Cooking food, keeping the fire, making cooking vessels, weaving hammocks, making sandals (or or other footwear and clothing further north), gathering food, making baskets, nets, and a host of other necessary items, was the work of women, and because these are things that don't preserve well across the millennia, we rarely see them in archaeological assemblages, and when we do see them, it is only a part of the complete item.

[@therat1117]

@@laurabrown7912 Yep! We don't actually know when plant fibres first began being woven, but it must have been very early. The earliest signs of fibre use are a needle found 60,000 years ago of Denisovan make, and *dyed* multicolour fibres found in Georgia from 36,000 years ago in Dzudzuana cave. And made of flax, no less, which requires a complex process to process the fibres for use. It is my thinking that if the fibres were already dyed, then likely the fibre manufacture was older, as dying fibres is a complex skill. And these tools fit the bill, being 35,000 to 12,000 years old. These sorts of artefacts being tension-providing weights for weaving, shuttles, or simply sources of torsion would all make sense, particularly if the spiral grooves were not intentionally added but were instead wear-marks.

[@susanohnhaus611]

@@therat1117 The Dzudzuana excavation report is fantastic. They actually found imprints of flat needle knitting on pottery.

[@pansepot1490]

Funny because I saw the video show up in my feed just after I finished attaching a few buttons, so the pointed object with holes in the thumbnail made me think about a needle. 😅 Obviously I didn’t think it is a needle but likely some tool having to do with thread. Interesting how the male mind goes straight to something useful for hunting while the female mind goes to how it could be useful around the house, so to speak. 😅

[@gergozavori5480]

Lot of plants have high silica content. Maybe years of spinning plants can cut spirals like that into the bones. This can strengthen the rope making theory.

[@AudraK]

I swear Stefan please keep making videos! Every single video of yours has some moment in it that just fascinates me and absolutely blows my mind. These are obviously heavily researched in advance, especially with the interviews, and this is obviously a passion of yours. Which has made archeology and ancient civilizations a huge passion of mine too. I can not thank you enough. ❤ My favorite channel by far! Also!! One video idea I’d be curious to see discussed, especially since I personally don’t know too much about it and how factual it is, is the archeological site in Zambia that has petrified logs with cut marks that were notched together at close to a right angle with a suggested date of 476,000 years old, bringing up the question of if it was made by our ancient relatives, a different species, or our relatives but earlier than we thought. I couldn’t think of a better person to ask

[@Tom_Bombadil3000]

The single-holed ones seem like they’re perfect for use as stakes suck in the ground for tents. Maybe a dual purpose, making the rope for the tent then as a stake to drive in the ground holding the rope that potentially supports a tent or some kind of housing?

[@rsplines12]

I thought so too. Maybe also used as pitons for climbing hills/mountains.

[@andrewfleenor7459]

Seems unlikely. Tent stakes usually aren't that hard to make from what you find nearby. If you were going to bring some with you, they might still be wood, since shoving them in and out of the ground repeatedly will wear them out and you might not want to waste bone or ivory on something that will get rapidly destroyed. Perhaps most importantly, a notch rather than a loop is actually the most convenient shape for a tent stage. Modern tent stakes, with near complete freedom in shape and material, always have something more like a notch, and honestly from my personal experience having to tie a string through the stake every time rather than just put a loop over the top sounds like a massive pain.

[@digitalbrentable]

The went to the trouble to engrave rifled grooves into the holes also on the single-holed batons. This suggests a unity of intention with the multi-holed batons. Doesn't seem worth doing for mere tent pegs

[@Tom_Bombadil3000]

@@digitalbrentable maybe when a tent is your home the pegs seem a bit more than just “mere”. I think that’s how we think of them for sure.

[@MtnNerd]

The batons that man was buried with look like stakes. Could be anything from tent stakes to weaving implements.

[@RyanDugan23]

The dichotomy of man: Sometimes, we make a cheese sandwich. Sometimes, we build the Taj mahal. You should think about putting that on a shirt. I think it's a great & funny quote. It definitely made me laugh.

[@gl2996]

I'd buy one in a hot second.

[@philipharding8768]

"The 'rope,' along with the 'stick,' are two of mankind's oldest tools. The stick to keep the bad away, the rope used to bring the good toward us. They were our first friends, of our own invention. Wherever there were people, there were the rope and the stick." --- From Kobe Abe's "Nawa" (quoted at the start of the video game, Death Stranding).

[@MarkA-rz8mv]

From a fellow Brit your channel is very refreshing. I’ve just found you today and I subscribed after the first video I watched. Great work my guy

[@JoshJones-37334]

lol at “mysterious oblong artifacts”. Hmmmmm

[@CapitalismSuxx]

lol me too XD

[@danpatterson8009]

Yep, my first thought...

[@jeanettewaverly2590]

Basic needs are eternal.

[@cometnight0]

@thePronto Some of them yes, but others...

[@One.DeSanctis.]

They are pointy and awfully rough looking. External usage only! 😂

[@Scribit339]

2:29 "Mysterious oblong artifacts whose use escapes us!" 😂

[@alamunez]

*whose

[@quijybojanklebits8750]

Don't put it there. Lmao

[@minze6982]

"its for uhhhhhhhhh...... ritual purposes! yes. ritual purposes." "i dunno, it kind of looks like a-" "FERTILITY RITUALS"

[@blaggercoyote]

Well, I came to the rope making conclusion immediately. And the lines? Maybe they showed how much to twist the fibres, note that the the first is twisted a lot to make a solid core and the outer ones somewhat less because they were going around the core. Perhaps the final one was for an outer "wearing" layer which could be easily replaced - thinner rope - as it wore down?

[@chrisball3778]

They don't need to have just one function. Particularly if you're living a mobile existence, versatile tools that had more than one use would be an advantage. Potentially they could be for making rope AND be pegs AND be digging tools AND have a ritual significance. Modern societies have ceremonial tools and weapons, e.g. military dress swords and those outsize scissors they used to use to cut ribbons at the ceremonial opening of public buildings (whatever happened to those? I don't think I've actually seen them in an age). Binding rope together could have obvious symbolic significance. A good leader (or even just a productive member of society) metaphorically fulfils that role by joining those around them together into something stronger than they were apart. Burying someone with rope-making tools could be a way of honouring the ties they created in life. 100% pure conjecture, obviously.

[@chrisball3778]

@@HedonisticPuritan-mp6xv if you can get good mushrooms, you don't need to look through a hole in an antler. You're probably better off leaving the cave, listening to the birds sing and watching the sun rise...

[@cody7773]

Thank you for putting the antlers on, made my day

[@69Buddha]

Fastening them with a nice bow under his chin was the cherry on top. :D

[@zoicon5]

"When I've got these antlers on I am dictating, and when I take them off I'm not dictating."

[@kelsofox369]

I just found your channel and im so glad I found you. I adore archeology and ancient history, and you sir, have a brilliant mind and a deep passion for these topics. It’s a joy to listen watch and learn from you. Thank you.

[@junebrilly5302]

Stephan, you presenting the Scentbird ad was the only ad Ive ever watched with humour and interest!!

[@dhanson890]

Do you know a humorous book called “Motel”? It was published by Dover Books and I don’t remember the author. The book tells the story of archaeologists in a distant future who unearth the ruins of a present day motel, which they don’t understand. Everything is for ritualistic use and a bathroom stool is “used to communicate with the gods”. We should use Okham’s razor and think simple uses are usually the best answer.

[@LunaDevaKitty]

it's a fun book, but it's brought up literally constantly in these circles. It's not an actual commentary on archaeology though.

[@CorwinFound]

Originally the batons were hypothesized to be ritual in nature. But over the decades, their extremely common appearance over huge amounts of time and geography pretty much killed that idea. Anything purely ritual doesn't last that long, especially pre-written language. These fictional archeologists would be pretty dumb if after finding step stools all over the place, in diverse environments, still thought they were ritualistic. Funny idea but not very realistic as far as basic logic that anyone should have.

[@francisnopantses1108]

Motel of the Mysteries

[@Chompchompyerded]

@@CorwinFound The ritualistic automobile.

[@digitalbrentable]

​@@CorwinFoundI think people are a bit too dismissive of ritual as an explanation for things. Lots of commonplace, mundane, and practical things have a ritual element to them. A typical toilet absolutely has a ritualistic element to it: a strange cabinet in almost every house that locks from the inside with no other exits. A second separate basin from the main basin in the kitchen, usually with a mirror. Scented perfumes and soaps. A future archaeologists would be correct to deduce a sort of defecation ritual requiring total privacy and subsequent ablution. Contrast with open air and u-shaped communal toilets in ancient Rome.

[@williewonka6694]

I remember our Scout Troop built a rope making machine. We turned binder twine into 3/4" rope. Can easily see how these artifacts could have been used for making cord and rope.

[@franzcosentini1447]

Hi, I'm an industrial designer, from an ergonomics point of view, in my opinion they are probably "handles". Your idea of people grabbing an animal with rope made me think about knotting the rope to the bone passing through the hole and using the cylindrical part as a handle to pull with more force without damaging your hands. This made me think that in general it must have been very common to drag big weights from one side to the other even for long distances and that for this reason a comfortable tool was essential. Also I looked at other images of perforated batons online and seems pretty common a section of the cylindrical surface is often marked or ribbed as for help with grip, some times even the end side of the cylinder opposite to the hole has a shape that gets larger or curved, again i think to help holding the handle with one hand. Who knows how many other uses it had, almost certainly a sort of weapon or simply to kill small captured animals before eating them, a blow on the head and off you go:) what do you think? (P.S.: love your videos)

[@johns1625]

Why have a hole when a knot will do? I think they have holes in order to let rope pass through. Maybe they are long and sharp on one end to be used as stakes in the ground or in wood. Maybe they are tools for rope making itself. Maybe the fibers are twisted and repeatedly drawn through the hole by hand to smooth or wax the rope. Edit: might be easy assumption because I wrote this before they talked about it

[@sned_music]

Hah this is EXACTLY what first came to mind for me also! Came here looking for similar comments and came across yours first 🙂 Makes perfect sense for them to be handles (as well as rope making tools and many other uses) Can easily imagine them being useful for leveraging rope to lift heavier weights than hands alone could do. Definitely useful for dragging that food back home. Another image that came to mine was a handle for a swinging rope weapon of some sort, possibly with a blunt or sharp object at the other end.

[@joewoodchuck3824]

​@@johns1625A knot can slip along the baton length. A hole keeps it in one place. Also, much harder to lose with a hole.

[@CliftonHicksbanjo]

Somebody pin this post.

[@CliftonHicksbanjo]

Have you seen the examples of these bearing square holes instead of round?

[@Forever_broken1]

With one whole, its used as a leverage tool to put torque on something. To twist or turn something. The rifling inside the whole helped to allowed the tool to move along the length of the material as its being twisted. Imagine it filled with grass. If its a smooth hole, it will just spin. Add thise spiral grooves and it will grab and twist the grass as well as slide along the length in one direction. Like a nut on the threads of a bolt kind of.

[@stevenpartin9208]

I absolutely Love this video! Can we get one on the Yamnaya culture? Great videos!

[@cosmoplakat9549]

That rope-making is amazing! I think they may have figured out the braid by learning to braid their hair in earlier times.

[@Bassalicious]

You really think we figured out how to look fancy first and then made survival easier and thus more likely afterwards? That feels like saying pottery was invented after people figured out how to make necklaces and hair beads from fired clay first..

[@LimeyLassen]

@@Bassalicious You jest, but both of those sound like great theories to me.

[@cosmoplakat9549]

@Bassalicious where did I say anyone was trying to "look fancy"? Braids are a practical way to keep hair out of one's way while doing other things, and braids keep hair from tangling into knots. Try to keep up.

[@Bassalicious]

@@cosmoplakat9549 I'm just saying it feels odd to me. I have long hair but if I didn't have anything I'd prefer a rope over braided hair to survive is what I'm saying. The technology is the same pretty much. My feeling is both came along more or less simultaneously. I'd think hair was cut or bound by other means previously. Also hair doesn't really knot that easily when you don't wash the talcum off every so often. I think modern hygiene is skewing our picture there.

[@k0lpA]

@@Bassalicious I think it's possible that hair was what inspired us to make rope. They probably noticed that hair that is twisted together is stronger, maybe because some people did it to look fancy or just because it tangled together naturally. Then they tried to replicate it with plant fiber and made tools to make the process faster

[@randomcontent2205]

Rope making, awesome stuff :) I had always assumed the perforated batons were used to straighten wooden hunting shafts. What a great video!

[@whatgoesaroundcomesaround920]

Some probably were. Stone "arrow straighteners" might have been early weaving weights. Microscopic wear patterns inside the holes of these "batons" might be useful in telling whether they were used with wood, hide or plant fibers.

[@cp2u1949]

The batons with multiple holes could have been used to make rope, but the single or double hole batons wouldn't have been of much use for rope braiding. I think the tools were used for straightening arrow shafts and for making every one a consistent diameter by ensuring every arrow shaft passed through the proper hole size. So the batons are arrow shaft tweakers.

[@briebel2684]

My first impression upon seeing the batons with the single hole, is that it looked like a tool to attach a rope and then throw. Then maybe it gets entangled in something, and now it's an anchor point for the rope. Or even a weight to throw a rope over a tree branch that you can't reach. The antlers won't damage the rope, so it's more useful over time than a rock would be.

[@Reginaldesq]

Interesting idea. I feel that antler or bone would be too light to work for that, plus one might just tie one end around a stone for a similar result.

[@citizen762]

It’s a mystery to us, but probably one day we’ll find a cave painting with someone using one and it’ll be something like a blunt holder for smoking joints or something.

[@judithmccrea2601]

Big ass reefers!😂😂😂

[@kMegalonyx]

Lol as if the ash and resin wouldnt completely impregnate the material. Clearly they would use them to *light* the blunts, jeeees

[@johnberwyn23]

Something that helps support the rope theory is the fact that rope gets heavy very quickly, it does makes sense to carry the tools to make the rope when and where needed. To me, it seems more reasonable for these batons to be a kind of Swiss Army Knife, they may have had loads of uses which would help explain the variances between them as different environments would have different priorities. Also, if they are handy everyday tools, I would want to decorate and customise mine.

[@larryvienneau]

Great video as usual. My thought is these had multiple purposes, perhaps making rope, perhaps used to make Atlatl or arrow shafts more informed, and/or as a shaft straightener. Keep up the great work… I do miss the spoon 😂

[@clintonmississippi2108]

it seems to me that every time I see fishermen weaving their net or repairing a hole in the net they had a device that looked something like this. There could be stronger nets made to capture animals on the land? Hunger will always urge you to invent something to improve what ever you are doing. Nets are very useful from fishing, trapping animals, making hammocks to sleep in, etc. Sam

[@SchoolforHackers]

Yes, a “fid” or “fib”. Sold them in a hardware store where I worked, but I never could figure them out.

[@andrewbrown6522]

I have a knife i made with an elk antler handle. The tine was very smooth and satisfying to hold. One day i was sitting in my tent (living on a mountain) and decided to drill a hole through the handle with my swiss army knife. It took all night. Maybe humans like to drill holes. Could explain how fire bows and the like came to be. I could also see the batons being used to strip plants like catrails of their outer fiber. The textile use is a pretty neat idea. Maybe used as a dowry and the item was in turn a tool for the family?

[@farewelltothesun]

"Why not both?", as a cute girl from a meme says. I think the argument for practical use is very strong but Paleolithic is a lot of time for people who used these batons to incorporate them in their culture. It's not such a stretch when we think about it. A pastoral stick became a symbol of Catholic bishops, and many gods from different pantheons are associated with certain tools to the point where these tools become symbols of the gods, used in ceremonies. Maybe people from Hohle Fels at some point used a perforated baton in certain religious ceremonies.

[@KyleMillerRocks]

This was my thought. If rope was crucial to your survival there would be groups who spent lots of time together making it. The creation of it is the ritual and the use is the practical aspect...if the way YOU help your group survive is sitting with 3-5 people and making rope for hours each day I am sure it wasn't long until stories, song, and myth became part of that process or a group would mourn the loss of someone who had been making rope with/for them for decades

[@superbacedia0476]

Egyptian pharaohs had a shepherds crook as regalia. I doubt many of them were shepherds. Practical objects often take on symbolic significance

[@kaybee1567]

She's from an Old El Paso commercial, not just a meme. I quote her...way too much.

[@jackread7406]

ASL?

[@Sebastian-if9ii]

My main, uneducated, opinion on this is that this tool could be used for a lot of things, i.e rope making and staff straightening - But I also think there is another thing overlooked here. They could be used as an anchorpoint to tie things to, think the stick to a knapsack, so that you can carry around pouches etc. with the same stick but replace the rope - And use that same tool to make new rope on the way once your one gets worn. An ancient "Handbag Handle" for a time before good pockets or sturdy backpacks that you can then walk with in your hand. The burial in Italy makes me think that perhaps it had to do with his profession or his role in his society - Perhaps a good craftsman for making them, who would trade them with others; I know if my friend died, and he made sticks for us all the time while I lived in a society who believed you'd bring items buried with you into the afterlife, I would make sure he took a few with him.

[@LimeyLassen]

What I'm learning from this comment section is that the uses for a "lightweight thingy with a whole drilled in it" are limited only by one's imagination.

[@evillemike2009]

Widen it out, and it becomes almost universal: "The easiest way to be wrong about someone is to underestimate them." Outstanding.

[@dannybrown5744]

Stefan!!!!!! Yeah good to see ya

[@badhombre4942]

Digging up that picture of the Inuit family was a fine bit of archaeology.

[@user-ns4yk1lm7j95]

When I was young, my dad had me help with hand made rope. What you are seeing in these artifacts really makes sense to someone who has actually made rope- twisting and combining different fibers to make something stronger

[@nahnahahaah6265]

Flint knapper here. We have these things in my country too (Denmark) and I have been trying to understand for a while now. In Denmark they are found from the mesolithic through the neolithic and into the bronze age. When I see these specific pieces of antler in these specific time periods the obvious function coming to my mind is as soft hammers for flint knapping. Concerning the holes my best guess it that they are for drying the striking surface of the hammers. It is a well known problem that antler hammers become damp in wet weather and turn to mush. I haven't been able to test it myself but I know of an american flint knapper who works with bone hammers and he drills out the marrow to avoid this problem. The holes in the antler, almost always near the striking surface, could serve a similar function.

[@CapitalismSuxx]

Kul att se lite nordisk representation! I just made a comment that old Swedish rope making techniques used tools like this. Check that one!

[@neohedron5126]

It’s crazy to me so many folks in the comments are speaking with absolute certainty about these tools.

[@rameezh88]

One of your best videos so far. Really enjoyed it. Each time one of your videos gets closer to the end, it makes me sad because I enjoy them so much. Please don't stop making videos! Thanks!

[@bradleywiesner3774]

1 hole= peg, handle, spindle, weaving rope into a net . 2 hole= loop and twist to tighten, slipknot noose. 3 & 4 hole= making and braiding rope.

[@jackread7406]

HOLE = PEG

[@capt.bart.roberts4975]

It always bears repeating, our ancestors were as smart as us.

[@telebubba5527]

Bears?🐻

[@alisn.7998]

I suspect smarter, as they only had natural materials, and live and dangerous food to work with.

[@capt.bart.roberts4975]

@@telebubba5527 Autocabbage!

[@DonaldMcDaniel-c4l]

perhaps it could be like a type of bolo, where you would swing it and then use it tp twist around a birds neck?

[@VERYEXCITED]

Scientifically, those are actually whatchamacallits. They are closely related to thingamajigs and within the same clade as whoozits and whatsits.

[@LimeyLassen]

someday we'll find it, the thingmabob connection

[@bigoldgrizzly]

you missed out the doofree doo and the doofer ;

[@Titus9508]

Also handy for adjusting the Foofoo Valve.

[@carolinereynolds2032]

A wigwam for a goose's bridle?

[@bigoldgrizzly]

@@carolinereynolds2032 blowing bubbles for the kids using soap wort ?

[@therealwildfolk]

Stefan debating what people use rope for 😂. You work outside, you use rope for a million things dude😂

[@goingupcountry5670]

I wonder if some types were sometimes used as handles on ropes to protect hands when pulling. Would explain breaking ubder pressure at the holes location

[@94f1senna]

I ran a Roofing specialist and Building renovation company for forty years And it still amazes me how many people think humans were stupid and dumb throughout human history They were experts in their timeliness, Because if they were not humans would not be here today Same as technology today We are basically on the 1st steps of the ladder of technology We survived for centuries without electricity or gas and it only really happened in the last 100 years Then the biggest change in human history is the last 50 years Just think humans roughly stayed the same for many centuries Then 1900 century a mayor step forward almost an impossible step forward in such a short space of time Why did it take a certain century to happen Or technology could have happened a million years ago where we were much more advanced than today And you go future back Maybe we ended up destroying ourselves Or that's why Mars is like it is now a baron lifeless planet But a million years ago or more something happened or natural disaster happened One of our greatest intentions ever was Electricity Electricity powers everything Gives life but takes life The worst thing ever to happen is money Because its causes greed and haves and have not So we go full circle and look at what we are doing now especially

[@MrBottlecapBill]

There can be no humanity without money, or at least the concept of value. It's intrinsic to nature. You have to have a very low intelligence to NOT understand that some things have more value than others. That's all money is. An exchange of value. Even animals understand this though they lack the brain power to learn how to exploit it effectively.

[@wiiza4ever]

Two minutes into this video, I, a fiber/textile artist, was convinced those batons are weaving shuttles, and the only reason that archeologists couldn't figure that out is that archeologists were exclusively men for a very long time. Eight minutes into the video, I'm feeling very smug about my theory. But the rope making theory for the four-hole batons is awesome and I hope it is true.

[@mathewgurney2033]

These can also be used to shave wood when making arrows, you can take a bent/off-kilter shaft and put it in the hole and use the circle as a file to smooth certain areas down until you make something that flies straight. That's why random rocks found with holes in them are considered lucky. Can't rely on having stones like that around to use, need to make your own from bones, stones are better/harder, but always the wrong size.

[@thomashughes_teh]

I think these were mace handles used for hunting chickens. Straps of leather were bound into the holes. On the heavy end a rock woven into a basket of leather was flailed at the chicken from an over the shoulder then above the head aspect assuring the chicken did not escape the swing by taking flight.

[@Genubath1]

Since these are 40k-15k years old and chickens only came about 10k-4k years ago in SE Asia, it would probably be some other prehistoric galliform. I think during this time period, hunting small game was less common due to the small return on investment of effort vs the megafauna that were still around. There is a change in hunting weapons over time as megafauna became less common, hunting weapons for small game become more common.

[@justinelighthouse6047]

0:03 no thats a gun

[@somepunkinthecomments471]

I think these were most likely multiple use tools. Maybe to make rope, maybe straighten arrow shafts as others have said, maybe even as a handle on that rope you used to drag a mammoth leg. I'm sure dragging a mammoth leg with rope would hurt your hands a lot.

[@brendan6747]

Essential tools for any hunter/gatherer! A 3-holed stick for making rope, and a 1-holed stick for looping rope through so you have a handle to drag or carry game for miles, like a stringer of fish or a horse

[@dherman0001]

Wild to think that Native Americans were still in the stone age less than 500 years ago.

[@cornpopwasabaddude4188]

The second stone age apears to be on the horizon

[@ChubbyUnicorn]

A stick with a hole is used to keep barb wire fences tight all across the american west. Frankly, a stick with a few holes in it is used for making many things: making cordage, peeling bark, stripping leaves, straightening sticks, carrying heavy things, etc, etc, etc.

[@Davidstall547]

ive made string and twine by hand from cotton fibers off a cotton plant near my house. I think i can explain the use of one and two hole battons, from the standpoint of "horse sense" for one hole batons: makes the first two strand twist. rather than holding the end of the strands in your teeth as you roll/twist the first strands between your index and thumb (left counterclockwise, right hand clockwise), you could feed the end through the hole of the baton, and stand on it, to keep tension on the twine as you work it. that makes it easier to work the material. once you have a good length of clockwise spun two strand twine and counterclockwise spun two strand twine, made with a one hole baton, switch to a two hole baton, to mate the twine together. you would likely tie off the twine to a post, and twist the two hole baton to mate the twine with a consistent number of turns per inch.

[@bogtrottername7001]

Make a video !

[@jackread7406]

Do you have ASF?

[@tylerdias8323]

The demonstration seems overly complicated, surely is you tied 3 bits of plant to a tree in one, tied each strand into each hole then walked away until it was tight then started turning the tool clockwise or counter, 1 person could achieve what 4 people could?

[@kencannuck]

Excellent and very interesting detective work. Whether or not it adds anything to the discussion; ... when I first saw you image of a multi hole batton my mind went to my recent experience of making a hardwood euphro with four holes evenly spaced hole with a small bevel on each exit, (to ease the line when bending) and used to rig my sail. They have reportedly been used for millenia as part of the sail rigging of junk rig sailboats or ships of SE Asia. Specifically, they are a method of gathering smaller lines coming from different directions and redirecting them to another use say into a block (pulley) . Also rope was used and repaired everywhere on sailing ships. Sometimes see them in arranging lines for shade canvas as well or hammocks also. Could there be some common origin ?