The complexity of Neanderthal technology

https://www.pnas.org/content/115/9/1959

A fundamental irony of Paleolithic (or “Old Stone” Age) archaeology is that it concerns a period of human history when most artifacts probably were made from wood. This is suggested by the heavy use of wood as raw material among recent or ethnographic hunter-gatherers (1) and supported by the repeated discovery of microscopic traces of wood-working on the edges of Paleolithic stone tools (2, 3). The technological significance of wood is further amplified in the Lower and Middle Paleolithic by limited use of bone, antler, and ivory (relative to the Upper Paleolithic and recent hunter-gatherers).