We examined the faunal assemblages from several archaeological sites including: Trou Magrite (Pont-à-Lesse, Belgium), Trou à l’Wesse (Modave, Belgium), Chez-Pinaud (Jonzac, France) and Lartet (Montbron, France). Bone tools were found in each of them. The results obtained at Chez-Pinaud site are particularly interesting. The new excavations, begun in 2019, have yielded 173 bone tools, i.e. nearly 4% of the faunal remains: retouchers, bevelled tools, knapped tools and blunted-end tools with similarities to those of the Chagyrskaya cave, although the two sites are 7000km and ten millennia apart. Minimally shaped, mostly by percussion, their forms have no historical or ethnographical equivalent that allow to precisely understand their manufacture process and to determine their function. We thus undertook to build a large experimental frame of reference. The experiments concerned the blanks debitage and shaping as well as the tools utilisation for different tasks in accordance with the archaeological contexts. About 50 long bones of cow, deer, horse and sheep provided 174 suitable flacks for shaping Neanderthal-type tools. More than one hundred bone tools were used in flint knapping, woodworking, bark collect, plant harvesting, hide working, butchery and soil digging. In addition to a classical techno-functional analysis of the damage of the bone tools surface, from macroscopic to microscopic observation scale, we developed an original methodology for internal use-wear analysis in microtomography. Due to the plastic properties of the bone material, bone tools can deform and crack under stress. Our aim was, through microtomography - a non-destructive X-ray imaging technique usually used in the medical field - to verify the presence of internal damages into the bone tools, characterise them and understand their relationship to manufacturing and use process. More than 122 microtomographic scans were performed on archaeological and experimental samples, processed, analysed and compared.
Thanks to this work, the objectives have been achieved. It demonstrates than a Mousterian bone industry does exist in Western European sites and provides further evidence confirming that it was a common component of the Neanderthals productions. Microtomographic analysis made it possible to observe internal damages linked to manufacture and use of experimental tools and find similar features in the archaeological samples. They also shown that the damages differ according to the stress undergone by the tools. Internal damages can therefore be an additional clue, along with surface damages, for the characterisation and interpretation of bone tools manufacturing and function. These results open two new investigation fields. The Neanderthal bone industry, which was disregarded, has now to be systematically sought in Middle Palaeolithic sites across Eurasia. It will shed new light on the Neanderthals behaviour and will contribute to a better identification of their specificities. The development of an effective methodology for the recognition of internal markers from use and manufacture can be useful, not only for Neanderthal’s studies, but for all technological and functional analysis applied to any bone artefacts regardless of their age and maker. Data provided by our research, which can be easily shared because of the full 3D modelling of the tools, now need to be completed and specified through a broader application of the method.
