If the reconstructed shape had been irregular, amorphous, or inconsistent with any functional weapon morphology, this alternative would have remained viable.

But the reconstruction showed a pointed, shaped object with the geometry of an intentional implement — an object that is difficult to explain as the product of natural processes and that is straightforwardly consistent with an engineered weapon tip.

Why Mastodon-Bone Points And Not Stone

One more dimension of the Manis evidence deserves specific attention: the choice of mastodon bone as the projectile material.

There is a long tradition of bone and ivory tool-making among the Upper Paleolithic peoples of Europe and Asia — the anatomically modern humans who occupied Eurasia during and after the Last Glacial Maximum.