The RINO project was born from the discovery of unusual marks on rhinoceros teeth recovered from the prehistoric Payre site in France’s Rhône Valley. The study of fossil rhinoceros teeth from this Middle Palaeolithic site, dating to around 250,000–130,000 years ago, provides unprecedented evidence that Neanderthals used them as tools.

Unlike the iconic mammoth, the role of rhinoceros in the subsistence strategies of prehistoric human groups and the relationships they maintained with these animals throughout the Palaeolithic age remain poorly understood. They served not only as a source of food but also for other purposes, including their rock-art representation in caves, such as the famous paintings in the Chauvet Cave in Ardèche more than 30,000 years ago.

The discovery of unusual marks on rhinoceros teeth from several Palaeolithic sites in southern France raised an intriguing question: could these traces be the result of intentional human activity?

The use of bones from large herbivores (including rhinoceros) for retouching and sharpening stone tools is well documented in Europe from the earliest phases of the Palaeolithic period. Rhinoceros teeth are also common features of Palaeolithic sites across Europe and Asia, yet only a few studies have suggested that prehistoric human groups may have deliberately collected and used them.

Unusual fractures and marks

More than 200,000 years ago, at sites such as Payre in south-eastern France and Panxian Dadong, in China, archaeologists recovered hundreds of rhinoceros teeth, some of them displaying recurrent fractures and distinctive surface marks. These observations prompted researchers to investigate whether the teeth had been used as tools and to examine other rhinoceros-rich assemblages from the same period across Europe.

Could this represent a previously unknown Neanderthal behaviour?

This question became the starting point for the RINO project and a recently published study in the Journal of Human Evolution, entitled “Elucidating the use of rhinoceros teeth by Neanderthals: Between experiments and the fossil record”. The research is the result of an international scientific collaboration.

This is the first, in-depth, interdisciplinary investigation of the potential use of rhinoceros teeth by Neanderthals. The study combines the analysis of fossil remains with archaeological experiments carried out on modern rhinoceros teeth, providing a unique........

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