The stone tool was discovered by speleologist Hrvoje Cvitanović last October in the Upper Barać Cave in Rakovica municipality near the Plitvice Lakes, about 120 kilometres south of Zagreb.
It will be displayed along with other old and recent finds in the Speleon underground heritage centre, which is expected to be opened in late 2023.
Tihana Oštrina, director of the Barać Caves public institution, told Hina that the discovery was proof of the material culture of the Neanderthals in this area and that it marked a turning point in the evaluation of the importance of this site.
Professor Ivor Karavanić from the Department of Archaeology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Zagreb said in a video presentation that such tools were typical of the Middle Palaeolithic or the Mousterian, which is associated with the Neanderthals in Europe.
"This would mean that we have another Middle Palaeolithic site in Croatia, or that the Barać Caves were occupied by the Neanderthals at least for a short while, given that for now this is the only such find here," Karavanić said.
This discovery should be seen as an encouragement for further explorations because it proves the presence of man in a period that is very attractive for both national and international science, he added.
The tool was found next to the first phalanx and tooth of a cave bear and is currently the only find from the Mousterian era in the Upper Barać Cave.
Tools similar to this were found in the Vinica Cave in Varaždin County and the Great Cave at Kičevica near Benkovac in Zadar County, which were radiometrically dated to the Mousterian era.