Bone socketed points

At least ten of these objects have now been identified amongst the material emerging from the Hungate excavations, but although these are not uncommon finds on archaeological sites, particularly from Saxon and Viking Age deposits, no one is quite sure what their function was. Each is typically made from a cattle leg bone, one end of which has been hollowed out and the inner tissue removed to form a socket for a handle; the point is roughly shaped by oblique strokes from a tool such as an axe, sometimes subsequently trimmed with a knife.

Suggestions for possible uses for these objects have included tips of skating poles for pulling skaters along, tallow holders, or tools for use in leatherworking. Signs of wear on many examples indicate that the pointed end must have been the working end of some sort of tool, but so far, there is no agreement amongst archaeologists as to what sort of craft this tool was most likely to have been involved in.