Overview

• Revised dating places the Schöningen wooden spears at 200,000 years old, attributing their creation to Neanderthals rather than Homo heidelbergensis.
• The assemblage includes nine complete spears, a lance, and throwing sticks, representing the only fully preserved Paleolithic wooden weapons.
• The spears were discovered in a German coal mine alongside the remains of nearly 50 horses, indicating Neanderthals used them for collaborative ambush hunting.
• New dating techniques analyzed the artifacts in their original deposits, challenging earlier sediment-based estimates of 300,000 years.
• The findings suggest Neanderthals employed advanced hunting strategies comparable to early Homo sapiens, offering new perspectives on their behavior and intelligence.