Danish Mesolithic Period Antler Pick

Ertebølle Culture, c. 5400–3950 BC, Denmark

A superb Mesolithic antler pick, fashioned from the antler of a red deer, and recovered from Denmark’s ancient peat bogs. This rare tool features clearly visible working traces, including chipping and sawing marks, particularly around the brow and bez tines, attesting to its careful shaping and practical use over 7,000 years ago.

This artifact belongs to the Ertebølle culture, a sophisticated Mesolithic society that flourished in Northern Jutland near the Limfjord, from around 5400 to 3950 BC. Living along coastlines, rivers, and inlets, the Ertebølle people thrived through a resourceful combination of fishing, hunting, and gathering. Their enduring legacy includes the famous kitchen middens—vast shell heaps, primarily of oysters, which mark their rich coastal diet and long-term settlement patterns.

The Ertebølle were masters of both watercraft and tool-making. Their flint toolkit included axes, knives, adzes, burins, and scrapers, while organic materials like antler, bone, and wood were expertly crafted into fishing gear, weapons, and tools like this antler pick. Antlers, in particular, were valued for their strength and durability. Picks like this were likely used in digging, breaking soil, or loosening clay, perhaps in construction or subsistence tasks.

Remarkably, many of these organic tools survived due to their deposition in cold, anaerobic peat bogs, where decomposition was arrested. These conditions preserved them for millennia, until they were uncovered—often during peat-cutting in the early 20th century.

The Ertebølle people’s adaptive use of natural resources, from dugout canoes to antler tools, paints a vivid picture of a society deeply in tune with its environment. This antler pick stands as a testament to their ingenuity and resilience—an authentic link to Denmark’s Mesolithic past.

Good condition. Visible cutting and grinding marks. The brow tine is slightly chipped from use but otherwise hardly worn. Age-related wear. Remnants of peat bog. Lovely brownish grey patina. Object is treated with a surface-protecting beeswax layer. Size approx. 27,5cm x 11,0cm x 4,5cm.

Provenance: private collection from Denmark.

References and further reading:

Europe's First Farmers – T. Douglas Price, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Cambridge University Press, 2000 (http://assets.cambridge.org/97805216/62031/ sample/9780521662031ws.pdf)

Inland Ertebølle Culture: the importance of aquatic resources and the freshwater reservoir effect in radiocarbon dates from pottery food crusts, Bente Philippsen & John Meadows, Internet Archaeology (doi:10.11141/ia.37.9)

Prehistoric period (until 1050 AD)/ The Mesolithic period, Nationalmuseet i København (https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-mesolithic-period/)

Written in Bones: Studies on technological and social contexts of past faunal skeletal remains, Justyna Baron & Bernadeta Kufel-Diakowska, Institute of Archaeology, University of Wrocław, 2011. (https://archeo.uni.wroc.pl/Instytut-Archeologii/Publikacje/Wydawnictwa-zwarte/Written-in-Bones)

How Bone Technology points to Cultural Lineages in Prehistory? New Insights from Danish Late-and Post-Glacial Weapons’ Heads, Éva David, Lasse Sørensen, Peter Petersen, Open Access Journal of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2022. (https://hal.science/hal-03598512/document)