Approaches to the acquisition and use of animal materials

Bison, red deer, horse, ibex, chamois and other large and small ungulates are the classic prey animals exploited by Neanderthals. The study of several sites has shown that Neanderthal hunting was not always restricted to this category of animals. Very large ungulates were also sometimes exploited. Cutmarks have been found on megaloceros bones in assemblages XII and XVIIc at Bolomor in Spain (Blasco, Fernández Peris, 2012) and a piece from Moula demonstrates the use of the bones of this animal for utilitarian purposes (Valensi et al., 2012). Several sites, located primarily but not exclusively in northern Europe, – have yielded megafaunal remains in abundance (mammoth, rhinoceros, straight-tusked elephant: for example La Cotte de Saint Brelade, Biache-Saint-Vaast, Mesvin IV, Spy, Tata, Ranville, Gröbern, and Lehringen); butchery marks have been identified on some remains at La Cotte de Saint Brelade, Biache-Saint-Vaast and Payre (Auguste, 1995; Daujeard, 2008; Smith, 2015), at Taubach (Bratlund, 1999), and at Bolomor and Preresa (Blasco, Fernández Peris, 2012; Yravedra et al., 2012). In Germany, the exploitation of elephants is demonstrated by 28 lithic artefacts found in association with a carcass at Gröbern and a spear discovered between the ribs of a carcass at Lehringen (Weber, 2001). At Asolo in Italy, a mammoth was recovered in association with Mousterian tools (Mussi, Villa, 2008).