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In 1994, the 300,000-year-old spears from Schöningen, Germany, made headlines as some of oldest wooden objects ever discovered. But these were not the only finds from the site. By the time excavations at Schöningen 13 (the ‘Spear Horizon’) came to an end in 2008, more than 700 pieces of wood had been discovered, the majority of which remained in storage for several decades, awaiting analysis. In 2021, a project began to examine the full assemblage in detail: the results have just been published.
The ancient hominins who left these objects behind were most likely early Neanderthals, whose remains start to appear at other sites in Europe around this time, although they also could have been the Neanderthals’ predecessor, Homo heidelbergensis. The date of the assemblage places it on the cusp of the Lower and the Middle Palaeolithic, offering a valuable opportunity to examine hominin culture and behaviour at this key moment of transition.
The team of researchers used a variety of techniques to analyse the wooden objects, exploring their materials and production techniques, as well as looking for signs of use-wear and cut-marks. This revealed a total of 187 objects with evidence of human working, of which more than 70 are identifiable tools. At least 20 of these are either whole or fragmented hunting tools, both spears – used for hunting medium- to large-sized animals such as horses, bovids, and cervids – and shorter double-pointed throwing sticks, which were used to target smaller terrestrial prey or birds. Unexpectedly, the assemblage also includes 35 previously unrecognised domestic objects. These would have been used for activities such as working hide and plant material, scaling fish, or even as pins for hair or clothes, or sticks for extracting insects from tree bark. Finally, the team counted more than a hundred wood splinters and fragments interpreted as working debris. These discoveries suggest that earlier interpretations of Schöningen as a hunting site are incomplete. Instead, it looks like the ancient lakeshore functioned as a campsite, with repeated occupation on several occasions.
Analysis of the wood itself revealed that all of the tools and artefacts were made exclusively of spruce, larch, and pine. Palaeoenvironmental studies tell us that these species did not grow locally, but would have had to have been transported from at least 3-5km away. Many other woods were available closer to the site, so it seems that the tools’ creators were specifically choosing these coniferous woods for qualities like their hardness and elasticity. This discovery provides firm evidence that the wooden tool production involved a considerable degree of advanced planning. The researchers determined, too, that the tools were prepared and shaped using deliberate, standardised processes, including one method that involved splitting wooden pieces up to 50cm long directly from old trees. Previously, this technique was thought to have been practised by Homo sapiens alone. The ancient woodworkers were also frequently recycling broken tools, extracting wood chips from broken spears, resharpening them, or repurposing them into something else. Interestingly, the planning and craftsmanship involved in making these wooden tools is much more complex than stone tools from the same site suggest: further evidence that lithics alone do not offer a full picture of Palaeolithic technologies.
The results of the analysis, which have been published in PNAS (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2320484121), reveal the true extent of the remarkable Schöningen assemblage, and demonstrate its vital importance as a unique window into the world of Palaeolithic Europe and the central role played by wooden artefacts, which is often overlooked due to their scarcity in the archaeological record.
Text: Amy Brunskill / Images: MINKUSIMAGES, Christa Fuchs, Matthias Vogel. Copyright holder: Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (NLD); Jens Lehmann. Copyright holder: Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (NLD)
