Neanderthal cutmarks: Combe Grenal and Marillac (France). A SEM analysis

This paper deals with the analysis of several human remains found in two French Middle Palaeolithic sites, with Mousterian culture and assigned to Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. One of those sites is Combe-Grenal Cave. The considered fossils are the fragment of a child mandible, an incomplete juvenile mandible and a humeral fragment from an adult. Numerous intentional cut-marks on the second mandible and on the humerus are described, while scratches found on the first mandible are interpreted as produced by gnawing. The second site is Marillac where B. Vandermeersch discovered several human remains, one of which, the posterior part of an adult neurocranium has also several cut-marks. Macro and microscopical examination, allowed the clear identification of traces of the flint instruments used during the manipulation of the cadavers, peri- or post-mortem. The possible interpretations of these striations are also discussed.