Abstract: This is a preliminary study of tools made on mammalian bones, antlers and horns found in central North China. These bony tools can be divided into 2 general categories, chipped tools and ground ones. A total of 17 tool types have been identified, including points, scrapers, burins, projectile points, drills, needles, harpoons, etc.They were collected from 22 Paleolithic sites localities, dated from the Lower Pleistocene to Upper Pleistocene.
Based on typological studies, this paper suggests that the Pleistocene bone industry in central North China was dominated by chipped tools made on tube-shaped limb bones and other bone of large and medium-sized mammals. Direct free hammer percussion was the main technique for tool manufacture,while bipolar method might have been employed to fabricate a few specimens. The bone tool industry had witnessed certain changes or innovations in manufacturing techniques over time; however, continuations in both typology and technology were evident from early to late periods.
This paper also discusses possible functions of bone-tools, technological aspects of scraped and grounded bone tools, and the origins and developments of the bone-antler-horn industry in central North China. It suggests that scarped and ground bone tools appeared only in the Upper Paleolithic. The low frequency of such new types in comparison with chipped bone tools might indicate that the latter was still the mainstrean bone tool industry even after the former had emerged. The appearance of scarped and ground bone tool technology in central North China maybe was the result of cultural exchanges and interactions with neighboring populations during the late Upper Pleistocene.

Key words: Bone-antler-horn-tools; Palaeolithic; Central North China