Two bone tools in the Raffles Museum
This short note by J.G.D. Clark describes two bone tools held in the Raffles Museum, one from Da Phuc, Tonkin, and one from Bukit Chuping, Perlis, Malaya.
Summary
The first specimen (R.M. No. 36.653 C.), excavated by Mme Colani at Da Phuc, is compared with a pair of similar tools from Star Carr, Yorkshire, England, made from elk femur. Both involve a section of long bone split and shaped by flaking, with a polished concave working edge. Clark notes the Indo-Chinese specimen is made from thicker bone with a proportionally narrower working edge, and suggests the original bone may have been from a Gaur, Banteng, Kouprey, or Water Buffalo (p. 197).
The second specimen, from Bukit Chuping, appears to be made from a splinter of thick tubular bone with only a slight and dubious trace of flaking. Clark considers such a tool likely to be of wide occurrence and cites a European parallel from Phillips’ Giant’s Hills report (p. 197).