Schöningen spears
[1][2][3][4][5] The excavations took place under the management of Hartmut Thieme of the Lower Saxony State Service for Cultural Heritage (NLD).
The age of the spears, originally assessed as being between 380,000 and 400,000 years old during Marine Isotope Stage 11,[6][7][8][9][10] was estimated from their stratigraphic position, 'sandwiched between deposits of the Elsterian and Saalian glaciations, and situated within a well-studied sedimentary sequence.
The spears were found associated with numerous bones of the extinct horse species Equus mosbachensis which display cut marks indicative of butchery.
The pedestal displays five massive layered sediment packages that were created by varying levels of the lake and silting-up processes.
[27] Subsequent research on the horse remains have demonstrated that in fact the prey died in different seasons, showing the site was revisited repeatedly by humans.
The points of the spears made use of the bases of trees, which is harder wood, while the soft inner pith is offset from the tip.
[39] Together the evidence suggests that the Schöningen spears most likely had multiple uses including for self-defence against dangerous predators like the large lion-sized scimitar-toothed cat Homotherium, with whom the humans shared the landscape.
Previously, Middle Pleistocene hominins, whether Homo heidelbergensis or early Neanderthals, were regarded as simple beings without language who acquired meat by scavenging other carnivore kills or natural deaths.
The large and swift prey that the Schöningen humans butchered suggests that their technologies and hunting strategies were sophisticated, that they had complex social structures, and had developed some form of communication (language ability).
[57] Since 2010, the excavations on top of the excavation base continued in the framework of a project by the Lower Saxony State Service for Cultural Heritage in Hannover and the Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology of the Institute of Pre- and Protohistory and Mediaeval Archaeology, supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Association).
Numerous cooperation partners domestic and abroad have been involved in the analysis of the excavations and material culture: Lower Saxony State Office for Heritage, University of Tübingen, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden (paleontology), Leuphana University Lüneburg (palynologie), Senckenberg Research Institute and Nature Museum in Frankfurt am Main, Leibniz University Hannover (geology), Institute for Quaternary Lumbers Langnau (wood anatomy), Romano-Germanic Central Museum Mainz and others.
The Forschungsmuseum is close to the place of discovery and is devoted to the inter-disciplinary research of the Schöningen excavations and Pleistocene archaeology, and presents the original finds in an experience-orientated, modern exhibition.
[58] Isotope analysis and wear patterns on the horse teeth show a wide variety of habitat and diet amongst the animals, indicating that the faunal assemblage accumulated in many small events, rather than one large slaughter.
[59] Sediment analysis shows that the red colour previously thought to be a result of hearths and burning are actually iron compounds forming as the lake levels dropped in recent times.
[60] Lake algae, sponges, and small crustaceans found in the sediments led to a suggestion that the spears were never used on dry land and that the deposit had always been submerged.
A further debate has centred around whether Schöningen humans were capable of powerful and accurate throws, and whether their wooden spears were effective as distance weapons.
[66][67][68] Later examples of possible wooden spears made by Homo sapiens include those from Monte Verde (Chile), and Wyrie Swamp (Australia).
