This Ice Age “Swiss Army knife” wasn’t crafted by early Homo sapiens, however. For example, in 2024 researchers discovered what appear to be tchotchkes collected by Neanderthals at the Prado Vargas Cave system in Burgos, Spain. More recently,a team conducting ongoing excavations at Scaldina Cave archeological trove in central Belgium found an animal bone with clear indications of intentional shaping. Further analysis showed it to be a tibia bone from a cave lion (Panthera spelaea), a species of extinct panther that roamed present-day Europe until roughly 13,000 years ago. Beyond its direct usage, the bone tool also helps contextualize Neanderthal’s relationship to cave lions, which coexisted alongside them for hundreds of thousands of years.