Not As Dumb As They Look: Another Example of Neanderthal Ingenuity

Figure 1: Example of Neanderthal flaying tool (Dyon et al., 2025)

 

If you have ever heard someone called a Neanderthal then you most likely know that it is not a compliment.  The stigma of Neanderthals as dumb, brutish, and violent entities continues throughout popular culture, but in (biological) anthropological discourse that narrative has shifted.  Recent evidence demonstrate Neanderthals were rather intelligent individuals who created works of art, initiated and participated in complex mortuary rituals, as well as created complex stone tools and shared those creation techniques with Archaic Homo sapiens.  Today’s blog post further supports these shifting perspectives by sharing with you additional information concerning Neanderthal ingenuity: the creation and use of flaying tools (Figure 1).

 

These flaying tools were discovered at the Abri du Maras site in France.  This was a summer hunting site that was continually used 105,000 and 132,000 years ago.  Neanderthals butchered reindeer and wild horses at the site, and it was the fragments of a reindeer bone that showed evidence of being repurposed into a flaying tool.  Flaying tools are those that enable the user to carefully remove the hides or skins of an animal without puncturing them.  Scholars employed use wear analyses to analyze the marks left on this bone sherd, leading them to reach their conclusions.  These conclusions were further supported by ethnographic data from Algonquian Nehiyawak and Nakawēk nations of North America.  They use bone sherds that show similar marks, and these bone tools are used in skinning hides off animals.  The scholars also noted that the smoothness of the edges of the Neanderthal bone tool suggest it was repeatedly used, making it an essential part of their tool kit. 

 

As this tool would have minimized perforation of animal hides it suggests that the Neanderthals preferred undamaged hides, but what the purpose of such undamaged hides remains unclear.  They may have been used for various purposes, such as the manufacture of clothing or shelters, but due to preservation bias against animal hides and skins we may never know what specifically the hides were used for.

 

Bibliography

 

Doyon, L., Hernando, J.M., Moncel, MH. et al. A bone tool used by neanderthal for flaying carcasses at the Abri du Maras (France). Sci Rep (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-30264-2

Taub, B. (2025, December 5). Neanderthals Used Reindeer Bones To Skin Animals And Make Leather Clothes. IFL Science.