Wooden tools rarely survive in the Paleolithic record limiting our understanding of Pleistocene hunter-gather lifeways. With 187 wooden artifacts, the so-called Spear Horizon of the lakeshore site of Schöningen in Germany represents the largest Pleistocene wooden artifact assemblage worldwide. Wooden tools include at least 10 spears and seven throwing sticks used in hunting next to 35 newly recognized pointed and rounded split woods likely used in domestic activities. The new analysis of the Schöningen tools provides unique insights into Pleistocene woodworking techniques, tool design, use, re-working, and human behavior connected to wooden artifacts.
The wooden spears from the Schöningen site, Germany. Image credit: Minkusimages / Matthias Vogel, NLD.
“The earliest indirect evidence for human woodworking dates back 2 to 1.5 million years ago based on use-wear on stone material,” said Dr. Dirk Leder from the Lower Saxony State Office for Cultural Heritage and his colleagues.
“Direct evidence of wood artifacts coming from Africa and the Middle East date back to 780,000 years ago.”
“The discovery of early wooden hunting weapons, such as spears and throwing sticks, has revolutionized our understanding of early human hunting abilities, social interaction, and hominin cognition.”
“The earliest wooden spears in Europe are 400,000 to 120,000 years old, with an outstanding assemblage from Schöningen.”
“The earliest throwing sticks are known from Schöningen, with later possible examples from Africa.”
“The oldest arrows from the German site Stellmoor are of Late Glacial origin dating 11,600 years.”
“Digging sticks used in procuring underground storage organs are preserved at few sites in Africa, Eurasia, and South America being 400,000 to 14,500 years old.”
“Early domestic wooden tools have been reported from a few sites in Eurasia and South America.”
In the new research, the scientists used state-of-the-art imaging techniques such as 3D microscopy and micro-CT scanners to examine an assemblage of wooden tools from Schöningen.
They were able to demonstrate new ways of handling and working the wood, such as the splitting technique.
Small pieces of split wood were sharpened, for example to use them in processing hunted animals.
“There is evidence of much more extensive and varied processing of spruce and pine wood than previously thought,” Dr. Leder said.
“Selected logs were shaped into spears and throwing sticks and brought to the site, while broken tools were repaired and recycled on site.”
“At least 20 spears and throwing sticks had been left behind on the former lakeshore. This doubles the number of known wooden weapons at the site.”
“The extraordinary state of preservation of the Schöningen wood has enabled us, for the first time, to document and identify the woodworking techniques in detail thanks to state-of-the-art microscopy methods,” said Dr. Tim Koddenberg, an archaeologist at the University of Göttingen.
“The wide range of woodworking techniques used, as well as the various weapons and tools of early humans, show the outstanding importance of wood as a raw material, which is almost never preserved from this period.”
“The Schöningen finds bear witness to extensive experience in woodworking, technical know-how and sophisticated work processes.”
“Wood was a crucial raw material for human evolution, but it is only in Schöningen that it has survived from the Paleolithic period in such quality,” said Professor Thomas Terberger, an archaeologist at the Lower Saxony State Office for Cultural Heritage and the University of Göttingen.
“Schöningen is therefore part of the internationally outstanding cultural heritage of early humans.”
“Only recently, the site was included in the nomination list for UNESCO World Heritage Site at the request of the state of Lower Saxony.”
The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Dirk Leder et al. 2024. The wooden artifacts from Schöningen’s Spear Horizon and their place in human evolution. PNAS 121 (15): e2320484121; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2320484121