Bâton de commandement

The hole bar ( recently also cult rod) is a common in the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Fund subject of reindeer antler, deer antlers or mammoth ivory called, which occurred in Western, Central and Eastern Europe. The function is still controversial. Most of these objects come from the Magdalenian southern France.

Material, workmanship and decor

Hole rods are usually made of antlers of reindeer or red deer, rare ivory of the woolly mammoth. The antlers were cut proximally and distally from the bifurcation of two sprouts and pierced in the crotch. The surface is often smoothed and often decorated with geometric or figurative incised lines. Due to the often complex pictorial representations are perforated rods important objects of the Upper Paleolithic cabaret. The technique of engraving is known at the same time and in the form of petroglyphs carved onto rock walls.

In the first Aurignacian, mostly unadorned hole rods were produced. These include the hole rods made of mammoth ivory bird stove cave and from the Geißenklösterle.

From the Gravettian there is undecorated hole rods, such as from the glasses and the Hohle Fels cave near Blaubeuren, but also with first superficial incisions. The decor consists of simple geometric patterns, such as lines, crosses or zigzag bands. Only from the "Proto - Magdalenian " in southern France there are figurative motifs on the hole bars. One example is the hole rod Laugerie -Haute with the representation, of two opposite mammoths.

In the early Magdalenian the hole rods were usually decorated with coarse animal heads, but also with simple linear decoration. It developed in the following years, a natural and increasingly complex ornament style. A famous example of this would be the phallic representation on the rod hole from the Gorge d' Enfer, or fragment of a perforated rod from the cave of Isturitz showing a bison head as a bas-relief. The latter can be associated with a representation in the cave of Niaux and thus André Leroi - Gourhan is, according to the art - style IV

Among the topics most frequently depicted include the horse, fish and various hooks characters. In addition, human figures were mapped to the hole bars. Such an object was discovered in Saint Marcel ( Indre ). It shows a male subject, divided by the drilled hole in the central region into two halves. André Leroi - Gourhan stresses that a large part of the hole rods would have been decorated with male motives and the hole rods themselves often take the form of a phallus.

In addition to the spear-thrower of the rod hole is one of the typical forms of Magdalenian devices. A hole rod made ​​of mammoth bone was also found in the Clovis Station Murray Springs in Arizona.

In the Mesolithic there are a number of perforated strips from red deer antlers.

Possible use

The purpose of the hole bars is unclear. While the first guesses favored a purely decorative baton, recent research is based on a tool. This would function as extensors of spears or arrows in question to just produce shafts by means of leverage of curved antlers or wood on fire, and water vapor. Perhaps hole rods were also used to make belts with the help of oil more elastic. Other theories relate to the use of the perforated rods as pegs for early dwellings or as a precursor of the two-part primer.

Hole rods could also have served as a mouth gag to pacify unruly animals. It was a string through the hole and through the animal's mouth. When tightening narrows the cord and causing the animal pain. Such gags are still used today. For this interpretation is some: Size and shape of the Paleolithic hole bars correspond to the modern. There are also broken hole channels at the places where this would be expected with appropriate use. Especially a lot of horses and reindeer drawings can be found on the findings, usually only the head of the animals. Some of these representations show this ornaments around the mouth, which can be interpreted as a mouth gag well. Presumably, hemp, bast, animal sinews, leather or fur belts were used as loops in the Magdalenian. If this interpretation is correct, the hole rod would be the first evidence of animal husbandry.

In the research of the rod hole is interpreted, among other things as a modified form of the spear-thrower. This would mean that already in the first Aurignacian spear throwers were in the form of perforated rods in use. Even the people of the Inuit use perforated devices to extend the throw distance, but seem prehistoric hole rods by experiments due to their material and their shape to have been better suited for hunting.