For the art of engraving perfect burins, burin-grattoirs, and burins doubles were rapidly made from these thin flakes; also burins with oblique terminal edge and with the 'parrot-beak' end. For industrial purposes some of the flints were denticulated around the border, doubtless for the preparation of fibres and of thin strips of leather for the attachment of clothing to the body and for binding of the flint and bone lance-heads to wooden shafts. Extremely fine perçoirs have been found adapted to perforating the bone needles; the grattoir, single or double, was also fashioned out of these flakes, and the nucleus of the flint was used as a hammer. Hammers of simple rounded stones are also found.
But the notable feature of Magdalenian industry is the extensive and unprecedented use of bone, horn, and ivory. From the antlers of the reindeer are early developed the sagaies or javelin points of varying size, usually ornamented along the sides and with several forms of attachment to the wooden shaft, either forked, bevelled, or rounded. The ornamentation consists of engraved elongate lines or beaded lines, and of deep grooves perhaps intended for the insertion of poisonous fluids or the outlet of blood.
Fig. 194. Types of the flint blade with denticulated edge, a characteristic industrial tool of Magdalenian times, from Bruniquel, Les Eyzies, and Laugerie Basse. After Déchelette, by permission of M. A. Picard, Librairie Alphonse Picard et Fils.
Of all the Magdalenian weapons the most characteristic is the harpoon, the chief fishing implement, which now appears for the first time marked by the invention of the barb or point retroverted in such a manner as to hold its place in the flesh. The barb does not suddenly appear like an inventive mutation, but it very slowly evolves as its usefulness is demonstrated in practice. The shaft is very rarely perforated at the base for the attachment of a line; it is cylindrical in form, adapted to the capture of the large fish of the streams. That a barbed weapon was also used in the chase seems to be indicated by drawings in the grotto of Niaux and lines engraved on the teeth of the bear, but these drawings indicate the form of an arrow rather than of a harpoon. The length varies from two to fifteen inches. The harpoons may have been projected by means of the so-called propulseurs or dart-throwers, which resemble implements so employed by the Eskimo and Australians of to-day. These dart-throwers are often beautifully carved, as in the case of one found at Mas d'Azil, ornamented with a fine relief of the ibex.
Fig. 195. Bone needles from the grotto of Lacave, Lot. After Viré.
Then there were bâtons de commandement, carved with scenes of the chase and with spirited heads of the horse and other animals, which quite probably were insignia of office. Reinach has suggested that bâtons were trophies of the chase, and according to Schoetensack they may have been used as ornaments to fasten the clothing. The discovery of mural painting and engraving suggests the possibility that these bâtons were believed to have some magical influence, and were connected with mysterious rites in the caverns, for a great variety of such ceremonial staffs is found among primitive peoples. Geographically, the bâtons spread from the Pyrenees into Belgium and eastward into Moravia and Russia.
Slender bone needles brought to a fine point on stone polishers indicate great care in the preparation of clothing. Associated with the borers are many other bone implements: awls, hammers, chisels, stilettos, pins with and without a head, spatulas, and polishers; the latter may have been employed in the preparation of leather. The borers, pins, and polishers appear from the very beginning of the period of sculpture. The name of poniard (poignard) is given to long points of reindeer-horn; one of these was found at Laugerie Basse.
History of Upper Palæolithic Art