Boot-shaped antler artifacts and prehistoric leather production

Abstract The first boot-shaped antler artifacts appear in the Shuangdun culture along the middle Huaihe River watershed at circa 7000 BP, before spreading out across the circum-Taihu Lake region, central Henan, and the Shandong Peninsula. Characteristic shape and use-wear marks indicate probable use as a scraping tool for leatherworking. Based on archaeological data from the Old Koryak culture in the Kamchatka Peninsula, as well as Eskimo and Native American ethnographies and contextual analysis of boot-shaped antler artifacts in burials at Sanlihe, a Dawenkou culture site, this essay argues that the boot-shaped antler artifact was likely a leatherworking tool.