Neanderthals also made bone tools

June 19 () –

New excavations at the Neanderthal site of Chez-Pinaud-Jonzac (France) show that this extinct human species developed bone tool manufacturing techniques.

From 45,000 years ago, anatomically modern humans were present in western Europe, eventually replacing the last Neanderthal populations. This time also sees major changes in material cultures, particularly the wide variety of bone objects, including hunting weapons, ornaments, and full-form figurines introduced by modern human groups.

Their absence from Neanderthal sites has led to the assumption that these groups did not produce bone tools and implements, which is sometimes inferred to reflect the cognitive difference between the two populations. Since the Neanderthals did not know how to process this raw material, they limited themselves to collecting bone fragments among the remains of carnage, using them solely as retouchers to shape flint tools.

But new research has shown that bone tools are as numerous as flint tools at Neanderthal sites. In addition, its diversity evidences a genuine industry that consists not only of retouchers but also in cutting tools, scrapers, chisels and straighteners, used for various activities and on multiple materials.

These bone tools are identifiable based on traces of manufacture and use present on their surfaces, as well as within the tools themselves using X-ray microtomography. Unlike modern human-made examples which are generally shaped by scraping and abrasion , these tools were made primarily by percussion.

The discovery of a bone industry at Chez-Pinaud-Jonzac is consistent with evidence discovered a few years earlier by the same team at the Chagyrskaya Neanderthal site in the Siberian Altai.

These two sites, located on either side of the Neanderthal expansion, attest to the fact that, like modern humans, Neanderthals made and used bone tools for their daily needs.

They had the knowledge to process bone using their own techniques and for their own purposes. Bone tools represent a new means of exploring and understanding Neanderthal technology, research explains Led by the University of Liège and published in PLOS ONE.