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| Socketed and deer phalanges (lower foot bones) and antler tips with traces of asphaltum are puzzling as to their function. These have ground, pointed tips. Similar artifacts were recovered from other sites along the upper Texas coast have been interpreted as projectile points, but they are longer and more sharply pointed than the Morhiss specimens. Some have speculated that socketed deer bone and antler artifacts may have functioned as atlatl spurs, bone tinklers or rattle segments. The specimens on the far left and right are antler tine segments in which the spongy interior has been removed by drilling on one end. The middle three artifacts are modified deer phalanges. The distal ends of the phalanges have been blunted and rounded by grinding while the proximal articular end has been modified by drilling. The interior of the three modified phalanges have remnant asphaltum. |