News Archaeology

Stone Age people used bone scrapers to make leather and pelts

At least 90,000 years ago, humans probably employed the tools to fashion clothes from animal skins

an ancient hide scraping tool shown at three different angles

Excavations in a Moroccan cave have uncovered ancient evidence of animal skinning and leather or pelt preparation using tools such as this hide scraper (shown at different angles) made from an animal’s rib.

Jacopo Niccolò Cerasoni, 2021

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Discoveries in a Moroccan cave have provided a rare look at how Stone Age people may have turned animal skins into clothing.