Buffalo Bone

[quito]

I picked this bone up off a gravel bar several years ago. It's about 18" long, and would have made a heck of a club as is. It took me a while to figure out that is was a vertabrae from the large hump region of the spine. I do believe it was slightly modified by man.

 

[flinthunter]

Nice bone. We don't find things like that around here. Can you show me where it was modified by man. Thanks

 

[vpnavy]

Nice find but more amazing how you figured it out quito. How in the world do you know that stuff?

 

[quito]

Nice find but more amazing how you figured it out quito. How in the world do you know that stuff?

Well it really was pretty easy. I googled buffalo skeleton, and there it was.

 

[quito]

Nice bone. We don't find things like that around here. Can you show me where it was modified by man. Thanks

OK, to start with, the end of the bone should be square, not rounded. Also, if you were to imagine holding that for use as a club, your hand would likely grab it a little ways above the bottom. The bone, has a very sharp ridge than runs almost the length of the bone, on both edges. It is a sharp enough ridge that one could not comfortably grab squeeze and use it. But, where you would hold onto it, you can see that the ridge has been knocked off. Zoom in, you may be able to see what I am talking about. I may take more pics too of the area if needed. The area mentioned is on the top side in the pics, and where the ridge dips is where I can see that some of the sharp ridge has been removed.