Burins, the Chisels of the Late Ice Age
Burins are not much to look at but these blades with their chiseled edges were not only the most important tool in the reindeer hunters’ toolkit, they changed the history of humanity. Although there is accumulating evidence for the use of specialized bone tools by Neanderthals, over 50,000 year ago, the invention of the burin by modern humans, caused a revolution in bone tool technology.
The burin’s sharp edges could cut through tough materials such as bone, antler and ivory to produced fine, razor sharp bone splinters that could be crafted into light-weight projectile points, bone awls for leather work and the most revolutionary of all artifacts produced by this chisel tool, the eyed needle. The needle is one of humanities most significant innovations as it allowed to prepare formfitting, layered garments with tight seams and improved thermal properties. The oldest evidence of such garments comes from Russia. Interments discovered at Sungir, dating back to Gravettian times (~30,000 ya), produced evidence of fine garments decorated with thousands of mammoth ivory beads (see Don’s maps).
Burins are simple stone tools made from blades from which short longitudinal bladelets have been removed to produce one or multiple chiseled edges. The burin blow (coupe de burin), executed with a soft hammer made from wood or antler, removes the burin spall and produces a sharp chisel edge, called the burin facet, as is shown on this image (see also).
Burins come in various forms and shapes. Some have a very simple single-sided edge whilst others are double sided. Some are beaked and others have edges with multiple bladelet removal scars.
The burin on the left is made on a chert flake by removing a single spall (Sweikhuizen, southern Netherlands). The impact point is highlighted with a blue asterisk. This flake also has a sharp cutting edge and has been used as a combination tool.
Dihedral burin (burin dièdre), with two converging burin facets forming a sharp point, probably used to make long grooves in bone (Midsomer Norton, Somerset).
Pointed burin with a burin spall removal scar at the top, probably used to gouge out bone splinters produced with a dihedral burin (Laugerie Haute, France).
Beaked burins (burin bec de perroquet). The two burins on the right are burin/end-scraper composite tools, from Laugerie Haute, which are typical for the Aurignacian culture. The one on the left is from Faulkland, North Somerset and shows features that are very similar to its French counterparts.
Parrot beak burin (burin busqué) with multiple spall removals on one side and a single edge on the other from the Magdalenian site of Laugerie Basse.
Late Palaeolithic/Mesolithic burin on a flake (North Somerset).
The products of burin technology: a bone awl made from a horse tibia (left, Thames gravels, London) and one from the Lower Avon gravels near Bath (right).
As with handaxes and scrapers, many lithics experts attempt to catagorise the various burin forms. Whether these forms tell us anything about their specific uses or the cultural traditions is not always completely clear. Some forms probably relate to use. Dihedral burins for instance can make deep longitudinal grooves in antler or bone to produce long slivers for making bone points. Others may have been used for levering out the bone slivers or for engraving ivory adornments and figurines.
It is no exaggeration that this seemingly unimpressive tool changed our history. It became one of the most important tools for Upper Palaeolithic humans to produce light-weight weapons, layered garments but also a means to express their creative and symbolic thoughts, the fruits of the evolving modern mind.
Venus of Willendorf (Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria)
