Detail

Two specimens, once attached to handles like knives, were found at an archaeological site belonging to the Toalian culture, a mysterious hunter-gatherer society that lived in southwestern Sulawesi 8,000 years ago. It is unknown when humans disappeared, but judging by the age of the teeth, they have been there for at least a thousand years.

There are holes in each of the teeth found; two in the big one and one in the small one. A string or string-like thing of vegetable origin was probably pushed through them, bonded with a glue-like substance. For this reason the knife was attached to a wooden handle to use the tool as a weapon, in rituals, or for processing food. The teeth themselves belonged to a shark that was not large, about two meters in size.

The adhesive used by ancient people was a combination of mineral, plant and animal materials. The same attachment method can be seen on modern knives. Shark teeth used by indigenous peoples in the Pacific Ocean. Tools are used to drill, cut and scrape.

However, such knives become dull very quickly; It’s too quick to be used as an everyday knife. Most likely, and this is confirmed by recent ethnographic studies, such tools were used in military conflicts, ritual actions, as well as in decorations.

Examination of the edges of each tooth confirmed all these assumptions: The damage to their surfaces was much greater than the damage that a shark would naturally inflict during feeding.

Scratches and polished area on the tip of a shark tooth / Photo: MC Langley