- [S] It's doing surprisingly well over on Missinglettr's curate thing; so far it has the highest click rate. # 📗 Hand-shined, mass-produced, & full of sorrow > I've been all over the place writing things for National Novel Writing Month, with very little rhyme or reason to the stories I've written on any given day. Given that, I was surprised at how often the topic of bones kept coming up. ## Quick Facts - Archaeologists know what bones were used as tools because bones used regularly as tools develop a polished sheen, unlike leftover detritus from meals. %% [[human hands polish bone tools]] %% - Inuit tattooists use copper or [caribou bone needles](https://arcticjournal.ca/featured/marks-of-belonging), followed by a "greased wood sliver" dipped in black pigment, for the "skin-stitching" method of tattooing. %%[[Marks of Belonging by ABOVE&BEYOND]]%% - Horse bone artifacts from the Turkmenistan region were shaped to resemble female figures, sometimes with dots around the pubic region or nipples to convey an impression of nudity. %% [[The Amazons by Adrienne Mayor#ch06p108 naked bone female figures]] %% - We can document the use of bone tools by humans as far back as the Early Pleistocene era (aka the Ice Age). - Located between the chin and the thyroid cartilage, the hyoid is a horseshoe shaped bone in the throat that helps people talk. It's [the only human bone not connected](https://www.ibji.com/blog/orthopedic-care/did-you-know-8-interesting-facts-about-bones/) to other bones. ## Glow Green Because of their unique regenerative abilities, exposed neural tubes, and weird heart defects, axolotls are very important to scientific research. To facilitate this, they were [cross-bred with albino tiger salamanders so scientists could see their bones better](https://reddit.com/r/Awwducational/comments/qunh5l/a_lot_of_people_requested_that_i_post_this_here). Scientists also altered their genes so that their bones would glow green under blacklights, which also made them easier to study. %% [[morphed axolotl]], [[axolotl]] %% ## Mass Production We have [evidence of humans mass producing bone tools](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0256090) as far back as the Paleolithic era. Elephant long bones were systematically broken to make blanks appropriate for shaping tools. The extinction of the Palaeoloxodon, a species of straight-tusked elephants, may have been one of the reasons that the technique was abandoned. %% [[villaElephantBonesMiddle2021]] %% ## Bone Sorrows The national musical instrument of Mongolia is a _morin huur_, which is [a bowed string instrument with a carved horse's head](http://countrystudies.us/mongolia/39.htm). According to legend, it was invented by a rider who used the rib bones and the mane of his favorite horse to make an instrument to express his sorrow at its death. %% [[Mongols#Pastoralism in Practice]] %% ## Mistaken Identity The term "whalebone" is actually a misnomer. Baleen is the comb-like keratin-based structure that blue whales and humpbacks use to filter plankton. It was [popular for making baskets, corsets, tea trays, and sword handles before the rise of plastics](https://www.conservation-wiki.com/wiki/Baleen). Indigenous North Americans used it to make kayaks and [spindle whorls](https://staff.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/2018/10/11/spindle-whorls-of-british-columbia-part-2/). %% [[The Many Uses of Whales and Their Bones]] %% *** <div class=infobox>If you found this interesting, you may also enjoy <a href="">my article about [[2020-09-07 Tombs]]</a>.</div>