A 39,600-year-old leather punch board from Canyars, Gavà, Spain

Abstract

Puncture alignments are found on Palaeolithic carvings, pendants, and other fully shaped These marks were interpreted as abstract decorations, system of notations, and features and animal depictions. Here, we create an experimental framework for the analysis and human-made punctures and apply it to a highly intriguing, punctured bone fragment found at Early Upper Palaeolithic coastal site from Catalonia, Spain. Changes of tool and variation in the and orientation of punctures are consistent with the interpretation of this object as the earliest- work punch board recording six episodes of hide pricking, one of which was to produce a linear results indicate that Aurignacian hunters-gatherers used this technology to produce leather tailored clothes well before the introduction of bone eyed needles in Europe 15,000 years later.