Retoucheur

Among the equipment found with Ötzi was an object that looks like a huge pencil! No one had ever found anything like it before, and archaeologists could not guess its use.

They therefore decided to copy the object and to try it out: They stuck a deer antler in a piece of wood and tried the object on flint … and it worked! This amazing tool was given the name “retoucheur”. It was used to shape flint flakes into arrowheads and the like.

The tip of the retoucheur is made of stag’s antler, an extremely hard material which the Iceman had also hardened in the fire.