Middle Paleolithic bone retouchers in Southeastern France: Variability and functionality

Diversity in the used bone found in the European Middle Paleolithic is very low, but bone retouchers are the most abundant and the most common. This paper focuses on the detailed study of numerous bone retouchers found in nine Middle Paleolithic sites bordering the French Massif Central in Southeastern France. Multidisciplinary and recent data on chronology and biostratigraphy on the archaeological sequences and the great number of bone retouchers have permitted a meaningful comparative regional analysis. Their occurrences and characteristics allow us to speculate about the skills and choices of the knappers using these bone tools, for instance deliberate selection or opportunistic choices within the butchery remains, as well as commenting on the length of time and the way that sites were occupied. Furthermore, in most of the studied layers we observed a strong disparity between the abundance of bone retouchers and the number of retouched lithic products presents, raising questions about their function and their role within the stone tool reduction sequence (primary retouching, resharpening stone tool cutting-edges, producing marginal and micro-retouch or in some cases semi-Quina retouch). Results are compared with a large European database, allowing us to discuss the characteristics of the bone retouchers in the Neanderthal world.