Field collected in Fontmort (Fontmaure), Vi🌃enne, Ce🐼ntral France.

Subsequently in the collection of Michel Geslin, President of the Amis du Musée de Préhistoire du Grand-Pressigny.

Included with a 🐟license from the French 💯Cultural Ministry.

A GORGE♌OUS SET OF MULTI-COLORED JASPER TOOLS MADE BY THE NEANDERTHALS, OUR CLOSEST HUMAN RELATIVES

Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) are the closest extinct relative of modern humans, having lived from approximately 400,000 to 40,000 years ago throughout Europe and Asia. Despite being shorter and stockier on average than modern humans, their brains were as large or larger than ours. Modern humans of European and Asian origin have between 1-4% Neanderthal DNA, and recent studies have shown that modern humans of African origin also share Neanderthal DNA, providing evidence that Homo sapiens traveled back and forth between Europe, Asia, and Africa after interbreeding ꦫwith Neanderthals.

The Neanderthal stone toolmaking industry - formally known as the Mousterian - defined the Middle Paleolithic in Europe and was more developed and complex than the Acheulean handaxe industry of the Lower Paleolithic (see Lots 46, 47, and 48). Neanderthal stone tools were varied in shape and purpose, with blades, handaxes, and spears for hunting and butchering being common, alongside scra𓆉pers and awls that would have been used to clean and sew together animal hides for clothing. The set of tools offered here includes both handaxes and scrapers.

These Neanderthal tools were field collected in Fontmort (Fontmaure), Vienne, Central France. The tools found at Fontmort are unique and can be distinguished by their being crafted out of multi-colored jasper, a type of Cretaceous microcrystalline quartz. These tools were previously in the collection of Michel Geslin, President of the Amis du Musée de Préhistoire du Grand-Pressigny, and are inclu🌊ded with a license from the French Cultural Ministry.

REFERENCES:

Pradel, Louis. Les Gisements de Fontmaure. Paléolithique Inférieur, Moustérien de Tradition Acheuléenne, Moustérien Final à Lames. Toulouse, France: Institut d’Art Préhistorique de la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines de Toul꧃ouse, 1967. 

Wilson, Richard. “Eschewing Bear Tracks: Fallacies, Figure-Stones and Fontmaure.” Rock Art Research 35, no. 2 (2018): 145–79.