The Long Bones as Tools

The skull evidence is remarkable, but in some ways the bone modification is the more technically specific and analytically distinct aspect of the Loch Borralie findings.

Individual 1’s skeletal remains included four bones — three from her arms (ulna and radius bones) and one from a leg (a femur) — that showed modification consistent with deliberate human working.

The researchers describe the modification as the whittling or working of the internal cancellous bone material to produce sharp edges and pointed ends.

The characteristic modification involved the removal of the outer cortical bone layer to expose the internal spongy bone, which was then worked to produce a specific functional form: a sharp point or edge.