The RINO mission was once born from the invention of ordinary marks on rhinoceros enamel recovered from the prehistoric Payre web page in France’s Rhône Valley. The learn about of fossil rhinoceros enamel from this Center Palaeolithic web page, courting to round 250,000–130,000 years in the past, supplies remarkable proof that Neanderthals used them as gear.
In contrast to the enduring mammoth, the function of rhinoceros within the subsistence methods of prehistoric human teams and the relationships they maintained with those animals right through the Palaeolithic age stay poorly understood. They served now not handiest as a supply of meals but additionally for different functions, together with their rock-art illustration in caves, such because the well-known art work within the Chauvet Collapse Ardèche greater than 30,000 years in the past.
The invention of ordinary marks on rhinoceros enamel from a number of Palaeolithic websites in southern France raised an intriguing query: may those lines be the results of intentional human task?
Using bones from huge herbivores (together with rhinoceros) for retouching and sprucing stone gear is easily documented in Europe from the earliest stages of the Palaeolithic duration. Rhinoceros enamel also are commonplace options of Palaeolithic websites throughout Europe and Asia, but just a few research have instructed that prehistoric human teams will have intentionally accrued and used them.
Bizarre fractures and marks
Greater than 200,000 years in the past, at websites equivalent to Payre in south-eastern France and Panxian Dadong, in China, archaeologists recovered masses of rhinoceros enamel, a few of them exhibiting recurrent fractures and unique floor marks. Those observations precipitated researchers to research whether or not the enamel were used as gear and to inspect different rhinoceros-rich assemblages from the similar duration throughout Europe.
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 revealed 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 clinical collaboration.
That is the primary, in-depth, interdisciplinary investigation of the possible use of rhinoceros enamel via Neanderthals. The learn about combines the research of fossil stays with archaeological experiments performed on fashionable rhinoceros enamel, offering a singular alternative to match lines produced experimentally with the ones preserved within the archaeological report.
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 Methods Analysis Institute).
D’après Sanz-Royo et coll., 2026, Fourni par l’auteur
Rhinoceros enamel possess a number of morphological traits, together with their measurement, weight, ease of dealing with, flat occlusal floor and resistance to fracture that can have made them specifically appropriate for technical makes use of.
Analysis method
As a part of the RINO mission, 12 archaeological websites have been decided on in keeping with proof of human task and the abundance of rhinoceros enamel inside their faunal assemblages.
To determine a comparative framework able to distinguishing herbal alterations from doubtlessly human-made changes, we additionally incorporated dental stays from palaeontological websites in Western Europe and osteological collections of recent rhinoceros. In general, the learn about tested 168 rhinoceros enamel from 4 Pleistocene palaeontological websites: Wasserbillig (Luxembourg), Oetrange (Luxembourg), Cova del Rinoceront (Spain) and Les Plumettes (Saône-et-Loire, France).
As well as, 236 enamel 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 enamel to decide whether or not the noticed marks may have resulted from chewing and feeding actions, quite than from human intervention. This allowed us to spot alterations that can have affected rhinoceros enamel right through the animals’ lives.
Experimental archaeology
A significant part of the mission was once dedicated to experimental archaeology. Through the usage 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 possible purposes and ‘user-friendliness’ of those gear.
Probably the most largest demanding situations was once acquiring fashionable rhinoceros enamel 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 enamel: Peaugres Zoo (Ardèche), Sigean African Reserve (Aude), and Montpellier Zoo (Hérault). The teeth extractions have been performed via Benjamin Drouet at Peaugres and Antoine Joris at Sigean.
The experiments have been performed on 18 fashionable rhinoceros enamel. Those
have been utilized in percussion actions, together with stone software retouching, knapping and anvil use with quartz and flint. The purpose was once to record the lines produced via human task and examine them with the ones noticed in archaeological information.
Moreover, a suite of experiments aimed to recreate herbal processes equivalent to abrasion and sediment compaction that enamel might enjoy right through fossilisation.
Examples of experimental actions reproduced within the learn about: A) Retouching quartz B) Knapping flint C) The use of enamel as an anvil for a work of quartz.
Courtesy of Sanz-Royo & coll., 2026, Fourni par l’auteur
Changes of rhino enamel right through archaeological experiments, with 3D reproductions the usage of a confocal microscope.
Courtesy of Sanz-Royo & coll., 2026, Fourni par l’auteur
The consequences printed that the marks known at Payre, in addition to the ones noticed at two different Neanderthal websites: El Castillo (Spain) and Pech-de-l’Azé II (France), have been very similar to the ones produced right through archaeological experimentation.
Moreover, the microwear research showed that those lines have been shaped after the loss of life of the animals, since no feeding alerts 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 thru experimental abrasion and compaction exams.
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 Center Palaeolithic websites of El Castillo and Pech-de-l’Azé II, we analysed a complete of 281 enamel, belonging to the steppe rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus hemitoechus) and Merck’s rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis). The latter represents the most important recognized fossil rhinoceros species in Europe for this era.
Tooth have been most definitely used as percussion gear
We will due to this fact conclude that the lines known on rhinoceros enamel from those two Center Palaeolithic websites – El Castillo (Spain) and Pech-de-l’Azé II (France) – are of human beginning. Those enamel have been most likely utilized by Neanderthals as percussion gear within the manufacture of lithic gear (flint and quartz), enjoying a task within the chaîne opératoire right through the Center Palaeolithic.
In accordance with the level of damage noticed at the enamel, Neanderthals seem to have a desire for enamel from older rhinoceros. It’s imaginable that they desirous about older animals as a result of they could also be more uncomplicated prey or scavenging alternatives. The flatter dental surfaces in their enamel might also have made them extra appropriate to be used as gear.
Drawing illustrating put on noticed on enamel 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 working out of Neanderthal behaviour, their technical alternatives, and the variety of uncooked fabrics they accrued and used, whilst additionally offering new perception into their exploitation of animal assets. Regardless of this crucial advance in wisdom, the invention additionally raises a lot of new questions that stay unresolved for the instant:
What does this discovery give a contribution to our working out of Neanderthals and
their courting 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 right through those classes in Europe? Did their morphological, behavioural, and ecological traits, in addition to their availability inside other habitats, affect those behaviours?
Those remarkable effects spotlight the significance of this analysis, which, as famous above, raises many additional questions that also wish to be explored.
At this time, it stays unclear whether or not this was once basic behaviour or if it was once particular to Neanderthal teams in Western Europe. We expect that it’s not likely that the usage of rhinoceros enamel as a uncooked subject matter was once a behaviour restricted in time and house. This discovery opens new views at the extent, serve as, and imaginable symbolic measurement of this custom. Because of this, a significant reassessment of rhinoceros teeth stays from other Palaeolithic websites must be undertaken in mild of those new observations.
Acknowledgements: We wish 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 fortify. 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 prolong our honest due to the Peaugres, Sigean, and Montpellier zoos (France) for offering the rhinoceros enamel used within the experiments, with particular due to Alexis Lécu, veterinarian at MNHN, for his treasured assist with this analysis.
