Did Neanderthals use rhinoceros tooth as gear?

The RINO mission was once born from the invention of bizarre marks on rhinoceros tooth recovered from the prehistoric Payre web page in France’s Rhône Valley. The learn about of fossil rhinoceros tooth from this Heart Palaeolithic web page, courting to round 250,000–130,000 years in the past, supplies exceptional proof that Neanderthals used them as gear.

Not like the enduring mammoth, the function of rhinoceros within the subsistence methods of prehistoric human teams and the relationships they maintained with those animals all over the Palaeolithic age stay poorly understood. They served now not most effective as a supply of meals but additionally for different functions, together with their rock-art illustration in caves, such because the well-known artwork within the Chauvet Collapse Ardèche greater than 30,000 years in the past.

The invention of bizarre marks on rhinoceros tooth from a number of Palaeolithic websites in southern France raised an intriguing query: may those lines be the results of intentional human process?

The usage of bones from huge herbivores (together with rhinoceros) for retouching and polishing stone gear is definitely documented in Europe from the earliest stages of the Palaeolithic length. Rhinoceros tooth also are commonplace options of Palaeolithic websites throughout Europe and Asia, but only some research have steered that prehistoric human teams could have intentionally accrued and used them.

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Odd fractures and marks

Greater than 200,000 years in the past, at websites corresponding to Payre in south-eastern France and Panxian Dadong, in China, archaeologists recovered loads of rhinoceros tooth, a few of them showing recurrent fractures and unique floor marks. Those observations caused researchers to research whether or not the tooth were used as gear and to inspect different rhinoceros-rich assemblages from the similar length throughout Europe.

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May just this constitute a in the past unknown Neanderthal behaviour?

This query become the start line for the RINO mission and a not too long ago printed learn about within the Magazine of Human Evolution, entitled “Elucidating the use of rhinoceros teeth by Neanderthals: Between experiments and the fossil record”. The analysis is the results of a global medical collaboration.

That is the primary, in-depth, interdisciplinary investigation of the prospective use of rhinoceros tooth via Neanderthals. The learn about combines the research of fossil stays with archaeological experiments performed on fashionable rhinoceros tooth, offering a singular alternative to check lines produced experimentally with the ones preserved within the archaeological file.

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Map of archaeological websites from the center paleolithic age and paleontological websites offering rhinoceros stays for the RINO mission. Map created with QGIS 3.40.6, essence information from ESRI (Environmental Programs Analysis Institute).
D’après Sanz-Royo et coll., 2026, Fourni par l’auteur

Rhinoceros tooth possess a number of morphological traits, together with their dimension, weight, ease of dealing with, flat occlusal floor and resistance to fracture that can have made them in particular appropriate for technical makes use of.

Analysis way

As a part of the RINO mission, 12 archaeological websites have been decided on according to proof of human process and the abundance of rhinoceros tooth inside their faunal assemblages.

To determine a comparative framework in a position to distinguishing herbal alterations from doubtlessly human-made adjustments, we additionally integrated dental stays from palaeontological websites in Western Europe and osteological collections of contemporary rhinoceros. In overall, the learn about tested 168 rhinoceros tooth from 4 Pleistocene palaeontological websites: Wasserbillig (Luxembourg), Oetrange (Luxembourg), Cova del Rinoceront (Spain) and Les Plumettes (Saône-et-Loire, France).

As well as, 236 tooth from the comparative assortment housed within the Gallery of Comparative Anatomy on the Nationwide Museum of Herbal Historical past (MNHN) in Paris have been analysed.

Dental microwear analyses have been additionally performed on fossil rhinoceros tooth to resolve whether or not the seen marks will have resulted from chewing and feeding actions, relatively than from human intervention. This allowed us to spot alterations that can have affected rhinoceros tooth throughout the animals’ lives.

Experimental archaeology

A big part of the mission was once dedicated to experimental archaeology. By means of the use of rhinoceros molars and premolars as percussion gear in managed experiments performed via skilled archaeologists, the analysis group aimed to construct a complete reference number of experimentally produced lines and to spot the prospective purposes and ‘user-friendliness’ of those gear.

One of the crucial largest demanding situations was once acquiring fashionable rhinoceros tooth for the experiments. After an intensive seek and Alexis Lécu’s help
(veterinarian on the Nationwide Museum of Herbal Historical past), 3 zoological parks agreed to supply tooth: Peaugres Zoo (Ardèche), Sigean African Reserve (Aude), and Montpellier Zoo (Hérault). The enamel extractions have been performed via Benjamin Drouet at Peaugres and Antoine Joris at Sigean.

The experiments have been performed on 18 fashionable rhinoceros tooth. Those
have been utilized in percussion actions, together with stone device retouching, knapping and anvil use with quartz and flint. The purpose was once to report the lines produced via human process and evaluate them with the ones seen in archaeological data.
Moreover, a collection of experiments aimed to recreate herbal processes corresponding to abrasion and sediment compaction that tooth might enjoy throughout fossilisation.

Examples of experimental actions reproduced within the learn about: A) Retouching quartz B) Knapping flint C) The use of tooth as an anvil for a work of quartz.
Courtesy of Sanz-Royo & coll., 2026, Fourni par l’auteur

Changes of rhino tooth throughout archaeological experiments, with 3D reproductions the use of a confocal microscope.
Courtesy of Sanz-Royo & coll., 2026, Fourni par l’auteur

The consequences published that the marks known at Payre, in addition to the ones seen at two different Neanderthal websites: El Castillo (Spain) and Pech-de-l’Azé II (France), have been very similar to the ones produced throughout archaeological experimentation.

Moreover, the microwear research showed that those lines have been shaped after the loss of life of the animals, since no feeding indicators have been discovered within the marks.
Conversely, those lines obviously fluctuate from the skin alterations documented in each palaeontological and fashionable reference collections, in addition to from the ones produced via experimental abrasion and compaction checks.

Those experiments have been performed on the Taphonomy Laboratory in Madrid (LeaT laboratory).
Courtesy of Sanz-Royo & coll., 2026, Fourni par l’auteur

On the Heart Palaeolithic websites of El Castillo and Pech-de-l’Azé II, we analysed a complete of 281 tooth, belonging to the steppe rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus hemitoechus) and Merck’s rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis). The latter represents the most important identified fossil rhinoceros species in Europe for this era.

Enamel have been most probably used as percussion gear

We will subsequently conclude that the lines known on rhinoceros tooth from those two Heart Palaeolithic websites – El Castillo (Spain) and Pech-de-l’Azé II (France) – are of human beginning. Those tooth have been most likely utilized by Neanderthals as percussion gear within the manufacture of lithic gear (flint and quartz), taking part in a job within the chaîne opératoire throughout the Heart Palaeolithic.

In keeping with the stage of damage seen at the tooth, Neanderthals seem to have a desire for tooth from older rhinoceros. It’s imaginable that they all in favour of older animals as a result of they is also more straightforward prey or scavenging alternatives. The flatter dental surfaces in their tooth may additionally have made them extra appropriate to be used as gear.

Drawing illustrating put on seen on tooth n°2754 and n°8557, courtesy of El Castillo (illustrations via Sophie Guégan).
Courtesy of Sanz-Royo & coll., 2026, Fourni par l’auteur

This learn about broadens our figuring out of Neanderthal behaviour, their technical possible choices, and the variety of uncooked fabrics they accrued and used, whilst additionally offering new perception into their exploitation of animal sources. In spite of this crucial advance in wisdom, the invention additionally raises a large number of new questions that stay unresolved for the instant:

What does this discovery give a contribution to our figuring out of Neanderthals and
their dating with their atmosphere?

What have been the methods for obtaining (searching, scavenging, trapping) and
exploiting rhinoceros via Neanderthals?

Have been they the similar for all rhinoceros species encountered throughout those sessions in Europe? Did their morphological, behavioural, and ecological traits, in addition to their availability inside other habitats, affect those behaviours?

Those exceptional effects spotlight the significance of this analysis, which, as famous above, raises many additional questions that also wish to be explored.

At the moment, it stays unclear whether or not this was once normal behaviour or if it was once particular to Neanderthal teams in Western Europe. We predict that it’s not going that using rhinoceros tooth as a uncooked subject matter was once a behaviour restricted in time and area. This discovery opens new views at the extent, serve as, and imaginable symbolic measurement of this custom. Because of this, a big reassessment of rhinoceros enamel stays from other Palaeolithic websites must be undertaken in gentle of those new observations.

Acknowledgements: We want to thank the RINO mission (Sorbonne College and the Nationwide Museum of Herbal Historical past) and the IRN TaphEN (CNRS) for his or her monetary give a boost to. We also are thankful to all those that granted get entry to to the archaeological and palaeontological collections, in addition to to the laboratories that hosted us. In the end, we lengthen our trustworthy because of the Peaugres, Sigean, and Montpellier zoos (France) for offering the rhinoceros tooth used within the experiments, with particular because of Alexis Lécu, veterinarian at MNHN, for his treasured lend a hand with this analysis.