Before Tools: How Neanderthals Used Rhino Teeth, Vulture Bones and Deer Antlers

💬 Neanderthals have been shown to use many incredible tools - but none quite as surprising as this. After studying rhinoceros teeth from a cave chock full of them - researchers managed to figure out why they were covered in strange markings.

⚡Alicia Sanz-Royo and her team of archaeologists examined the teeth that had remained a mystery for many years. By recreating ancient Neanderthal activities, they managed to reproduce the same markings - showing these rhino teeth were probably used as tools!

In this episode we find out how they managed to finally figure out this mystery, how Neanderthals managed to hunt rhinos, and why they chose to use rhino teeth at all. We also delve into two other amazing animal tools used by Neanderthals - vulture bones and deer antlers.

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Read the paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248426000230 

🎧 Stay tuned to learn about:

➡ The ancient mystery hidden in dozens of rhino teeth

➡ Whether Neanderthals hunted or scavenged rhinoceroses

➡ The surprising reason rhino teeth made great tools

➡ How deer antlers helped shape Stone Age technology

➡ The bizarre vulture-bone tools that changed our view of Neanderthals

About the podcast:

What We Did Before is a podcast exploring the history of everyday life, from how we kept food fresh before fridges, to how we survived without shoes and what came before AI.

About your hosts:

Ollie Guillou is an award-winning podcast producer and broadcaster. He's co-founder of OG Podcasts, working with the likes of New Scientist, Dr Karan and Lessons From Our Mothers.

Connect with Ollie:

Website: www.ogpodcasts.co.uk 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ollie-guillou 

Email: hello@ogpodcasts.co.uk

Image Credit:

Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons