Computers Used To Study Bones

A Peabody Museum research director is using computers to find out whether certain prehistoric bone fragments were used as tools.

Mrs. Hind Sadek-Kooros, recipient of a $10,000 American Council of Learned Societies grant, will study collections of bones in Europe, Africa and Asia next year.

She explained that some pieces of bone, such as harpoons, have specific shapes and are easily identifiable as tools. But many rough fragments may or may not have been tools, and in these cases Mrs. Kooros' method is useful.

Mrs. Kooros uses criteria regarding shape and markings to distinguish rough tools from ordinary bone scraps. She feeds the criteria to a computer, which measures how well the description of each bone meets these standards.

Until now, it has been almost impossible to prove that certain rough fragments were prototypes of more sophisticated, well-formed bone tools, Mrs. Kooros said. "This was a real problem," she said, "because men didn't suddenly start making perfectly-shaped tools. First there had to be some crude prototypes."

So far, she has studied primarily a group of 11,000-year-old bones unearthed on a Peabody excavation she directed in northeastern Idaho.