Projectiles for Kids –

Abstract

The Magdalenian Teufelsbrücke cave site (Thuringia, Germany) yielded a big inventory of osseous projectiles that was reexamined by the author. According to the metric data, the great majority of the points, having a mesial width of 7–10mm, are comparatively delicate. That can be due to functional requirements or because the quality of the locally available raw material – in most cases reindeer antler – did not allow for making them bigger. Additionally, there is a group of points that are even smaller, actually too small to be used effectively for horse and reindeer hunting. Against the background of similar specimens in other Magdalenian inventories, these particularly tiny points are interpreted as child and youth weapons. The ethnographic record shows the ubiquity of small-scale projectiles in hunter-gatherer societies: To become a good hunter, the use of projectile technology had to be trained from early childhood on and thus the weapons ‚grew up‘ with their owners.