In the Mesolithic period animals were not just hunted for their meat, but provided a range of other useful materials. These included hide for clothing and shelter, gut and sinews as binding materials, and bone and antler for making tools. Although bone and antler tools have survived at only a few sites, they show the range of tools that must have been in common use during the Mesolithic.

Fish spears, harpoons and arrow tips made from the bone and antler of red deer have been found at Star Carr in Yorkshire. Mattocks made from elk antler were probably used for digging and bone awls and scraping tools may have been used to make tents or clothing from animal hides.

Stray finds of Mesolithic bone axes, axe sleeves, hammers and points are also known from the Thames and other rivers. The tools may be isolated losses, but because of the large number of artefacts that have been discovered it has been suggested that they were deliberately deposited in the rivers as ritual offerings.