Current World Archaeology 61 (10th Anniversary Edition, Oct 2013) – see also www.world-archaeology.com has a short piece on Europe's earliest (so far) bone tools – and these have been dated back to Neanderthal times, which as previously reported consist of a leather making tool, shaped from a deer rib with a polished tip. It resembles modern leather working tools, the kind used to produce a softer more water resistant leather fabric. It was found in a deposit containing typical Neanderthal stone tools – together with animal bones and sediments that have been dated to around 51,000 years ago (C14 and optically stimulated methodologies). The distinction between Neanderthal capabilities and those that are supposed to signify a modern human and more intelligent mind are becoming more blurred by the day. There is more to the demise of the Neanderthals than has yet been recognised – and their relationship to their Upper Palaeolithic successors around 40,000 years ago. The same story can be found at http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10713
See also Dimitra Papagianni and Michael Morse, 'The Neanderthals Rediscovered: how modern science is rewriting their story', Thames and Hudson:2013, ISBN 978 0 500 051771