Stone Age humans scavenged the skeletons of several whale species along the Bay of Biscay in what is now southwestern France and northern Spain, according to a new study

Fragment of projectile point from the cave site of Isturitz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France), made of bone from right whale or bowhead whale, dated to 17,300-16,700 years before present, curated at the Musée d’Archéologie Nationale (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France). CREDIT: Jean-Marc Pétillon.

Scientists have pinpointed the oldest known evidence of humans making tools from whale bone. The bones, fashioned into narrow projectiles for hunting reindeer or bison, had been uncovered in excavations dating back over a century in the Bay of Biscay near Spain and France.