Neanderthals used Bear bone retouchers

Neanderthals used cave bear bones to retouch their stone tools, it is also possible they were retouching their stone tools with the bones of the bear they were butchering.


Image Credit:
10.1371/journal.pone.0230642.g004 Fig 1 shows the wear on the bear bones that came into contact with neanderthal stone tools.

Cave bear bone Retouchers From Scladina Cave, Neanderthal use of bear bones for retouchers is very rare however at Scladina cave (Belgium) there were 26 retouchers found with 6 being made from cave bear bones four from a femur and two from two tibiae. Flint splinters, still embedded in grooves, can be used to identify their function as knapping tools. These cave bear bones show modifications in the form of cut marks, scraping marks, impact notches and typical fractures of percussions on green bone.
Image Source: Zátonyi Sándo
The fossilized body of a cave bear that died during hibernation.

This Suggests that the neanderthals who used/made them were using the recently hunted cave bears bones to retouch the very tools used to hunt, skin and butcher him.
The refitted bear bone showing where the bone was "split" possibly on an anvil.



https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261106120_When_Neanderthals_used_cave_bear_Ursus_spelaeus_remains_Bone_retouchers_from_unit_5_of_Scladina_Cave_Belgium


https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1040618213007945#:~:text=Evidence%20of%20Neanderthals%20using%20bear,and%20two%20from%20two%20tibiae).


https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0194318

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