A New Bone Artifact from Florida
 

  The purpose of this article is to describe a new type of bone artifact in Florida which is made from a modified raccoon baculum inserted into a modified deer antler tine tip.  Even though there are different possibilities as to the purpose of these artifacts, which will be discussed presently in this article, the writer believes that the most logical use would be for fishing and thus we will refer to them here as a composite fishing lure.  Of the little research done on prehistoric bone fishing tools in Florida, most has been done in the last ten years, this being principally Hemmings (1998), Means & Means (2004), Mitchell (2003) and Walker (2000).  The article by Means & Means describing the large, barbed hook made from deer tibia, is especially informative and since this research both admirably and adequately describes the common types of bone fish hooks found in Florida, that information will not be repeated here.   Both Means & Means and Hemmings mention the likelihood of modified raccoon bacula being used as fishhooks, although none of these authors was aware of the association of bacula and antler bodies.

Description of the composite hook 

The baculum is cut in two, the proximal end being discarded and the distal end, which is curved, is flattened and sharpened.  In one case the cut end is scored.  The antler tine tip is perforated to accept insertion of the baculum and the distal portion is grooved, supposedly to facilitate attachment of a string or line, although the groove is often deeper and wider than would seem necessary to attach a line.  The tine in each case except one is perforated so that when the naturally curving tine tip points downward, it is pointing in the same direction as the forward and downward curved portion of the baculum.  In the one exception, the hole is drilled sideways through the body instead of perpendicular to the axis.  The surface of the antler in several cases bears evidence of smoothing and/or rubbing and scraping.   Although green antler is quite hard, archaeological consultant Claude Van Order of Lakeland, FL has offered the information that green antler soaked in water, even without heating, will adequately soften it so that it can be worked quite easily.[i]  The rear of the body is rounded except in hook 7, where it is cut at an angle and opened to expose the shaft of the baculum in place (fig. 2).  In three instances the area immediately surrounding the upper portion of the hole is indented. 

Below in the table is an overview of the known extant composite artifacts, with the exception of one which could not be found for this study.  The measurements are in millimeters. 

 It should be mentioned that it was reported to the author that the majority of the artifacts were found with the baculum intact and inserted in the antler body.  In two cases no baculum was present and in one or two cases the baculum was lying nearby.   This may seem unusual, but it should be mentioned that there is at least one documented case  where a pointed bone pin has been found with a composite barb still attached.  The author has examined this artifact (fig. 6) which came from Citrus Co. FL and  which is in a private collection.  Also, Scott Mitchell of the Silver River Museum in Ocala reported that Cushing found bone barbs attached to wooden shanks at Key Marco.

History of the artifacts:  

Up to the present a total of 16 examples have been discovered, most of which are complete, all from the Steinhatchee River basin in Taylor Co. Florida.  These artifacts have been known to Florida and Southeast collectors for about 35 years.  In the early l970s, Gary Bonar of Tampa and Joe Grove of Largo found a total of five, and in the ensuing years two other collectors discovered the remaining11 known examples.  All of the artifacts are in private collections; four of these are currently in Florida, three in Kentucky and the remaining 9 in Georgia collections.  The author has examined personally ten of the known artifacts and has measurements of five more, but he was unable to obtain any photo or information of the remaining example, which is reported to be in poor condition and incomplete.  The current owners of the artifacts wish to remain anonymous. 

Context and age of the artifacts 

As is the case with the majority of the bone fishhooks which are known from Florida, none of the composite lures came from reliable dating strata.   Hook 9 was selected to be subjected to Radiocarbon analyses, principally because it had not been treated with Butvar, white glue or other preservatives (fig.1).  It is, however, considered to be representative of the group and there is nothing about it to suggest a different time period.   In October of 2008 the University of Georgia Center for Applied Isotope Studies returned for sample # 03456 a date of 3040±30 years before present.  Dr. Alexander Cherkinsky, who did the analysis, commented that he was comfortable that circumstances were favorable for an accurate test. This places it at the end of the Archaic to Early Woodland time period which would not seem out of place.  The Means Barbed Hook described by the Means  brothers had not been dated by the time of their publication (2004) but hopefully the State of Florida will one day test their samples so we can compare dates.  It is interesting to note that a similar modified raccoon baculum was found at the Sunset Haven Site in St. Johns Co. FL, an Orange Fiber shell midden excavated by Janus Research, and which yielded a date of approximately 4,000 bp.[ii]  

Conjecture of purpose and use: 

Although some have suggested the purpose of this artifact might be some type of symbolic pendant worn around the neck, the most logical use of the above described artifacts would be that of a fishing lure to attract large fish or turtles. In theory, after the fish struck and swallowed the lure, the protruding baculum would serve to lodge against the inside of the fish in the same manner as the gorge hook. It seems likely that feathers were attached to enhance this attraction.  Of interest is the reference made by Robin Brown (p.137) to Frank Cushing’s description of a supposed composite fishing lure fashioned from deer antler and a shell, found at Key Marco.  Since of the16 examples of the lure under discussion here, none was accompanied by a worked shell, we can conclude that it was unlikely that shells were attached to attract fish.  We must point out the probable relationship between the composite lure bodies and the hundreds of worked raccoon bacula found over a wide area of Florida (fig.5).  These bacula have been collected for many decades by amateur archaeologists and have been reported from many rivers, including the Aucilla, Hillsborough, Suwannee, South Withlacoochee, Santa Fe, Steinhatchee, St. Marks, Wacasassa, and Wacissa, The new artifact described here may possibly offer at least one answer as to their use.  In two instances (one in the Hillsborough River and the second in the South Withlacoochee River) they have been found in considerable numbers associated with several small conventional one piece bone hooks.  In no case of  which I am aware have they been associated with the Means Large Barbed Hook.  It is interesting to note that in the Hillsborough River site, several similar cut and worked turtle scapulae[iii] were found in association, and at least one came from the Steinhatchee basin area of the composite hooks (Fig. 7). 

If one makes the assumption (correctly or incorrectly) that the many bacula found unaccompanied with antler bodies are nevertheless components of like composite lures,  we might then surmise that the reason there are no bodies is that they were made of wood, long ago decomposed.  These would of course float and would be much easier to make using wood instead of antler.  It would seem then, that the wooden ones would serve as top water lures and the antler ones as underwater lures, since green antler does not float.  There comes to mind an analogy (perhaps somewhat strained) of the ratio of antler atlatl hooks to wooden ones, and perhaps even antler atlatl weights to those made of wood and stone.  The question then remains, as to why we find the antler lures only in the one area of the lower Steinhatchee Basin?  We have no answer for that, but it has been suggested that perhaps these lures served to catch turtles or large fish such as tarpon, sturgeon, and redfish, and that this section of the Steinhatchee provided good hunting for these food sources. 

References 

Brown, Robin C.  Florida’s First People.  Pineapple Press, Inc.  Sarasota, 1994. 

Cushing, Alan K. “Explorations of Ancient Key Dwellers on the Gulf Coast of Florida.”  American Philosophical Society Proceedings, vol.35: 329-448. Philadelphia, 1897. 

Hemmings, C. Andrew.  “Bone Fishhooks.”  In Aucilla River Times, vol.XI, n.1, March 1988, Florida Museum of Natural History. 

Means, Guy H., and Ryan C. Means  “A New Type of Prehistoric Bone Fishhook from North Florida.” The Amateur Archaeologist, Fall 2004  pp. 43-55, Issue editor:  Robert L. Knight, PhD. 

Mitchell, Scott E.  “Prehistoric Fishing Technology among the Florida Indians.”  Proceedings of the 2003 Annual Meeting of the Florida Anthropological Society,  May 10, 2003, Tallahassee, FL 

Walker, Karen J. “The Material Culture of Precolumbian Fishing:  Artifacts and Fish Remains from Coastal Southwest Florida.”  Southeastern Archaeology, vol. 19 (1):  pp 24-45, 2000. 

Our thanks to Claude Van Order of Lakeland, FL, for sharing his vast knowledge of Prehistoric Florida, and to the anonymous owners of the composite lures for making them available for study.  Others to whom we are grateful for their assistance are Dr. Robert Knight, Dr. Scott Mitchell, Carlos Tatum,  all from Florida and Dennis Vesper of Covington, Kentucky.

Fig. 1 Lure 9, typical of all others.

Fig. 2  rear view of lure no. 7, showing baculum intact as found.

.
Fig. 3 Typical unmodified raccoon baculum.
 

Fig. 4  Typical unmodified raccoon baculum showing splayed distal end.

Fig. 6 Bone pin with attached barb, as found, Citrus Co. Florida.

Fig. 5 Other modified bacula from several localities in Florida, none was associated with antler bodies.

Fig. 7 Modified turtle scapula, associated with composite hooks, Taylor Co. Florida.

back to Research Index