Detecting human activity areas in Middle Palaeolithic open-air sites in Northern France from the distribution of faunal remains

•Detecting human activity areas in Neanderthal sites using spatial analysis method.•Built of an adapted methodology for our datasets and estimated its reproducibility.•Studybased on the combined use of Kernel Density Estimation and K-means clustering.•Butchery and combustion areas were detected for both sites: Caours, Beauvais.•We have refined the spatial criterion that may be recurrent in Neanderthal sites.