Evidence for activity that we would call artistic is almost nonexistent in Mousterian sites. Fewer than a dozen Mousterian objects bear even the simplest purposeful, repetitive markings. We do begin to find evidence in this period for the collection of natural pigments in the form of chunks of ocher and manganese, but the context of their use remains uncertain. Some show evidence of having been applied to soft surfaces such as human or animal skin, but this practice does not necessarily imply artistic activity. We now know that ocher very effectively repels vermin and prevents animal skins from decaying. If Neandertals were using it for these purposes, then they seem not to have practised any form of bodily ornamentation--unlike all modern humans.
Neandertals seem to have had an interest in novel colors and forms, such as this large chunk of iron pyrite from the late Mousterian of La Quina, France, but they seem not to have transferred these colors and forms out of their natural state.