Earspoon, stopper, harpoon socket

This earspoon was carved with a female figure, I’m thinking, to increase its value and to distinguish it from others, to associate it with its original owner. * Why bother etching circles in a container stopper except to help distinguish the contents? This one is for needles; this one for pins. . . . All my stoppers have that chevron design. * The barbed heads of a harpoon fit into the socket of the foreshaft and a bone ring fits over the joint. Different heads for different animals. You’d expect designs on the sockets would help a hunter remember what went with what. * The dotted circles, the chevrons, the lines, the etched lines, the anthropomorphic figurines may have had decorative purposes, but they would also identify the object, saying that’s mine, or I can see my father or mother made that one.