I do wish that just once, an article like this would include a skeptical anthropologist saying something like, "Does it look like art to you? Not to me. Rather it looks like carving done by someone bored out of his mind. So, no. I'm not willing to agree that it is art. Not yet."

The grooves could have served some functional purpose as a tool. Could it have been attached to a cord and used as a sling? Some tools are used to create other tools, so it could be additionally difficult to speculate as to its purpose. Maybe the research has some reasoning why they don't think this was the case.

To me it looks like a grip.