over the shorter version. The spear straightener hypothesis The hypothesis that the batons were used to help fashion spears, darts, and arrows does not necessarily conflict with their use as spear-throwers. The straighteners may have operated in two main ways. Firstly, the holes may have been used as a "shaft wrench" to lever a wooden shaft straight, perhaps after heating the shaft. The shaft would be noticeably smaller than the hole, and placed through it. By applying pressure on the baton bends in the shaft could be straightened. The second method is to put the shaft through the hole, and then spin the baton round and round, with the rough inside of the hole either wearing away the wood to achieve a tapering point, or marking areas to be whittled; it could then be fire-hardened. Smoothing leather thongs placed through the hole in a similar way is another possible use. Rope making Certain batons with spiral grooves around the holes are said to function as tools for making rope. See Hohle Fels. Collections There are examples in museums in many parts of Europe, but there are especially good holdings of decorated batons, mostly from the excavations of Magdalenian sites by Henry Christy and Édouard Lartet, in the Musée d'Archéologie Nationale, British Museum and Muséum de Toulouse. In 2013 a number of batons were displayed in an exhibition at the British Museum Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind Unique North American example The "Murray Springs shaft wrench" appears to be a unique North American example of a similar tool made of bone and comes from the Clovis culture. It dates to about 9,000 years ago and was found in Arizona, where it is now in the Arizona State Museum. It is 259mm long and undecorated, with a simple shaft with a larger end, which has a single, rather oval, hole 25–30 mm across. Similar but smaller tools from much later Native American cultures are known, which are regarded as arrow-straighteners. Notes References Archaeological artefact types Primitive technology Upper Paleolithic Aurignacian Art of the Upper Paleolithic Bone carvings