A reanalysis of the ‘perforated’ scapula from the Boxgrove Horse Butchery Site

The archaeological site of Boxgrove (U.K.) represents one of the most detailed records of early Middle Pleistocene hominin activity in Europe. Dated to the end of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 13 (∼480,000 years BP), it preserves an extensive Acheulean landscape marked by high-resolution evidence of tool manufacture, animal butchery, and hominin remains. Among its key discoveries is the unique archaeological locale of GTP17, known as the Horse Butchery Site, where a single horse carcass was intensively processed by a group of hominins using handaxes and flakes, several of which were knapped adjacent to the carcass at the time of butchery. The archaeological signature also suggests that hammerstones and anvils may have been used to process the horse, probably to access grease and marrow. A fragment of the horse's right scapula features a distinctive curvilinear fracture previously interpreted as a potential hunting lesion caused by a wooden spear—an interpretation that, if confirmed, would push back direct evidence for use of hunting weaponry in Europe and link it with Acheulean bifacial technology. While later sites such as Clacton and Schöningen provide evidence of wooden hunting weapons, the Boxgrove scapula fracture has remained ambiguous, lacking rigorous experimental comparison. This study presents the first comprehensive reassessment of the Boxgrove scapula fragment using both microscopy and quantitative methods. By replicating damage patterns through experiments involving thrust and thrown wooden spear impacts, and hammerstone percussion on scapulae to access marrow and grease, we compare these dynamic impact scenarios with the archaeological evidence. The spear experiments demonstrate that wooden spears used as both thrusting and throwing weapons are capable of creating significant wounds to larger prey such as horses, and can occasionally leave traces in the form of hunting lesions. However, hammerstone percussion on scapulae can also cause curvilinear fractures, and such damage is metrically a better match to the Boxgrove scapula fragment. While the evidence that the butchered horse at Boxgrove was actively hunted by the hominins remains strong, our analysis suggests that the Boxgrove scapula fracture is not indicative of weapon impact, but rather is better aligned to percussion damage from hammerstone use to access within-bone nutrients including grease and marrow.