ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2013
Neandertals made the first specialized bone tools in Europe.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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43 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Neandertal demise: an archaeological analysis of the modern human superiority complex.PloS one · 2014Pooled it
- A bone tool used by neanderthal for flaying carcasses at the Abri du Maras (France).Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Neandertal Cold Adaptation: Technological, Anatomical, and Physiological Responses to Cold Stress in One of Our Closest Fossil Relatives.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Article
- First identification of a Neanderthal bone spear point through an interdisciplinary analysis at Abric Romaní (NE Iberian Peninsula).Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Paleolithic eyed needles and the evolution of dress.Science advances · 2024Review
- The wooden artifacts from Schöningen's Spear Horizon and their place in human evolution.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Bone tools, carnivore chewing and heavy percussion: assessing conflicting interpretations of Lower and Upper Palaeolithic bone assemblages.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- First direct evidence of lion hunting and the early use of a lion pelt by Neanderthals.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Measuring ancient technological complexity and its cognitive implications using Petri nets.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- From fossils to mind.Communications biology · 2023Review
- Article
- Production method of the Königsaue birch tar documents cumulative culture in Neanderthals.Archaeological and anthropological sciences · 2023Article
- Technological and functional analysis of 80-60 ka bone wedges from Sibudu (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa).Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Evolution of genetic networks for human creativity.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Review
- Neural correlates of perceiving and interpreting engraved prehistoric patterns as human production: Effect of archaeological expertise.PloS one · 2022Article
- The effect of eraser sampling for proteomic analysis on Palaeolithic bone surface microtopography.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- A worked bone assemblage from 120,000-90,000 year old deposits at Contrebandiers Cave, Atlantic Coast, Morocco.iScience · 2021Article
- A 51,000-year-old engraved bone reveals Neanderthals' capacity for symbolic behaviour.Nature ecology & evolution · 2021Article
- Boning up on Neanderthal art.Nature ecology & evolution · 2021Article
- Elephant bones for the Middle Pleistocene toolmaker.PloS one · 2021Article
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15 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Modern humans replaced Neandertals ∼40,000 y ago. Close to the time of replacement, Neandertals show behaviors similar to those of the modern humans arriving into Europe, including the use of specialized bone tools, body ornaments, and small blades. It is highly debated whether these modern behaviors developed before or as a result of contact with modern humans. Here we report the identification of a type of specialized bone tool, lissoir, previously only associated with modern humans. The microwear preserved on one of these lissoir is consistent with the use of lissoir in modern times to obtain supple, lustrous, and more impermeable hides. These tools are from a Neandertal context proceeding the replacement period and are the oldest specialized bone tools in Europe. As such, they are either a demonstration of independent invention by Neandertals or an indication that modern humans started influencing European Neandertals much earlier than previously believed. Because these finds clearly predate the oldest known age for the use of similar objects in Europe by anatomically modern humans, they could also be evidence for cultural diffusion from Neandertals to modern humans.
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