Ideas no longer written in antler

peer reviewedIn the course of the Upper Paleolithic, antler debitage techniques seem to have followed a linear evolution. The earliest one, fracturing by cleaving, appeared during the Aurignacian and is considered by some specialists to be ineffective. According to them, it was not until the invention of the groove and splinter technique during the Gravettian that antler debitage became efficient. Nonetheless, during the Solutrean, fracturing once again became the most common technique, but by splitting. Based on a study of 102 Solutrean pressure tools and experimentations, we reach the conclusion that splitting is a very effective technique that can produce blanks with the same qualities as those made by the groove and splinter technique. The splitting technique was nonetheless excluded in previous studies. We explore the reasons for this and the particularities of the different antler debitage techniques evidenced in the Western Upper Paleolithic