The Personality of India: Pre- and Proto-historic Foundation of India and Pakistan c13.s3.t1.15

c13.s3.t1.15

"The pits are all crowded with short cut marks which are mostly arranged radially. A few run across the pits without passing through the centre, so that it looks as if the pits are the results of the frequently repeated action of sharp cutting edges, which were impressed upon the bone in all manner of directions, though more or less exactly on the same spots. The result of this repeated operation was the wearing-away of the bone, which naturally was deepest where the largest number of cuts were superimposed. It is clear that these cuts, the longest of which is of the order of 12 mm., cannot have served any purpose such as cutting or carving the bone. The explanation which suggests itself is that the bone was used as an anvil for the manufacture of microliths, the cores being placed on the bone and the cuts being produced either by the sharp edge of the core or by the edge of the flake when it was struck off."