LMX099 - SUPER RARE EUROPEAN ICE AGE FOSSIL REINDEER MANDIBLE WITH HUMAN BUTCHERING CUTS

Product Description

ID

Rangifer tarandus (REINDEER)

FOUND

River Gravel Deposit - Kerkdriel,
Maas River, Holland

AGE

LATE PLEISTOCENE:  20,000 - 10,000 years ago

SIZE

8" long straight-line measurement

CONDITION

INTACT WITH NO REPAIR OR RESTORATION.
SINGLE ORIGINAL MOLAR PRESENT.
UNDERSIDE OF BACK END HAS OBVIOUS
RIGHT ANGLE CUTS INDICATIVE OF HUMAN
BUTCHERING WITH A STONE KNIFE.

NOTE

EXTREMELY RARE REINDEER FOSSIL
SHOWING PREHISTORIC HUMAN BUTCHERING!
DESPITE THEIR NUMBERS IN PREHISTORY, 
THIS IS THE ONLY REINDEER FOSSIL JAW
WE HAVE EVER SEEN!  

PERFECT FOR A MUSEUM OR TO DISPLAY 
WITH UPPER PALEOLITHIC HUMAN TOOLS
SINCE THE END OF EUROPE'S ICE AGE
WAS CALLED THE "AGE OF THE REINDEER".
CHOICE PRESERVATION AND COLOR

INCLUDES DISPLAY BOX - Actual Item - One Only

Comes with a certificate of authenticity / information sheet

In all our travels in Europe, we have seen very little large specimens of fossil reindeer and certainly, a piece of this level of completeness is a RARE FIND of a fossil displaying obvious prehistoric human butchering!!!  This is a right mandible of an Ice Age REINDEER from Europe.  It shows obvious butchering cuts from a stone knife, to the back underside of the jaw.  This part of the bone would have had the most marrow and in butchered animal jaws, this area was the region where typical butchering cuts were made to extract it, in prehistory.  Not only is this a RARE fossil because it is from a scarcely seen animal in fossil collections, it is A RARE SPECIMEN OF ICE AGE HUMAN HUNTING AND BUTCHERING!!! 

The end of the Ice Age in Europe has been termed the AGE OF THE REINDEER.  At that time, there were vast treeless plains with massive herds of wild reindeer.  These animals were one of the main food sources hunted by Upper Paleolithic Cro-Magnons.  Some of the most beatiful prehistoric human art features reindeer and these regal beasts were a vital resource to human survival but also, a magnificent creature that was surely loved and worshipped based on the cave paintings and portable art that featured reindeer. 

Despite the numbers of prehistoric herds, the fossils of reindeer are abnormally absent from the fossil record.  Perhaps prehistoric humans were so complete and resourceful in hunting that every remain was used, leaving little behind.  They were more delicate in skeletal anatomy than bison or rhino certainly, but their sheer numbers were so great, you would think the fossils would be as common as horse, but they are not. 

This is THE ONLY fossil we have of an Ice Age reindeer outside of antlers.  OTHER THAN THE BUTCHERING CUTS, IT IS COMPLETE, UNBROKEN AND WITH NO REPAIR OR RESTORATION.  VERY, VERY RARE!

This would make a phenomenal display piece laying alongside  primitive hunting weapons of prehistoric man!  The color is natural and is a rich golden brown.  This is a rare fossil from a beast that is seldom found in Late Pleistocene fossil collections.  A great compliment to a primitive man stone tool and weapon collection as these animals lived alongside humans, played a vital role for resources in human survival during the last Ice Age and were hunted / revered by both Neanderthal man and Cro-Magnon man.