Hafting is a process by which an artifact, often bone, metal, or stone, is attached to a handle or strap. This makes the artifact more useful by allowing it to be fired (as in the case of an arrowhead), thrown (as a spear), or leveraged more effectively (as an axe or adze). An artifact (also artefact) refers to any object or process resulting from human activity which represents things from the past. ... Bone tools have been documented from the advent of Homo Sapiens and are also known from Homo Neanderthalis contexts. ... Ancient stone tools A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made of stone. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Stone tool. ... Hunting spear and knife, from Mesa Verde National Park. ... Axe For other uses, see Axe (disambiguation). ... Adze The tool known as the adze [pronounced adds] serves for smoothing rough-cut wood in hand woodworking. ...

Hafting is perhaps best known for its use by prehistoric man, but it is still practiced by enthusiasts today. Stonehenge, England, erected by Neolithic peoples ca. ...

The hafting process

Flint (tool)

There must be some way to attached the artifact to the strap or shaft, and to this end, flanges are often created on one end (the end opposite the cutting edge). Flanges are produced by a process of knapping or grinding the excess stone away, resulting in indentations in the piece. Flint tools were made by stone age peoples worldwide. ... In archaeology, ground stone is a category of stone tool formed by the grinding of a coarse-grained tool stone, either purposefully or incidentally. ...

If a shaft or handle is to be used, it must also be prepared in some way. The wood or other material is often soaked in water to soften it, and a slit may be cut vertically into the center of the shaft. This provides a place for the "head" of the tool or weapon to fit. Trunks A tree trunk as found at the Veluwe, The Netherlands Wood is a solid material derived from woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs. ...

The artifact can then be inserted into the slit, and fixed to the shaft by tying around the flanges with a suitable material. Alternatively, the head may simply be forced into the shaft, if the shaft is soft enough, eliminating the need for a slit (and perhaps improving durability). If a strap is used, it is tied directly to the flanges of the artifact.

Hafting in prehistory

The Neanderthal

Before their extinction about 24,000 years ago, the Neanderthals developed the extensive use of hafted stone tools. Archaeological investigation provides little evidence of the use of antler or bone. Binomial name †Homo neanderthalensis King, 1864 Neanderthal range Synonyms Palaeoanthropus neanderthalensis The Neanderthal (IPA pronunciation: ), (Homo neanderthalensis) or Neandertal was a species of the Homo genus that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia. ...

The Cro-Magnon

The Cro-Magnon hafted antler points onto spears between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago. A Cro-Magnon male skull The Cro-Magnons (IPA: or anglicised IPA: ) form the earliest known European examples of Homo sapiens sapiens, from ca. ...

The Clovis

The Clovis culture is noted for its used of hafted spears in the Americas around 11,000 years ago. Stone Clovis points were formed in a way that may have allowed them to break off on impact with a target. The Clovis culture (also Llano culture) is a prehistoric Native American culture that first appears in the archaeological record of North America around 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. ... World map showing the Americas CIA political map of the Americas The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World consisting of the continents of North America[1] and South America with their associated islands and regions. ... Clovis points are the oldest flint tools associated with the North American Clovis culture. ...

Homo floresiensis

Hafted tools thought to have been created by Homo floresiensis up to 90,000 years ago have been discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores. Binomial name †Homo floresiensis P. Brown , 2004 Homo floresiensis (Man of Flores) is the name for a possible species in the genus Homo, remarkable for its small body, small brain, and survival until relatively recent times. ... Map of Flores Island Flores (Portuguese for flowers) is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, an island arc with an estimated area of 14,300 km² extending east from the Java island of Indonesia. ...