Hand axes and other stone tools from our ancestors are often found in archaeological excavations. But weapons and tools made of wood are a real rarity because they rarely survive the millennia. All the more spectacular is a 300,000-year-old wooden throwing stick that archaeologists discovered in the open-cast mine in Schöningen, Lower Saxony. It is by far the oldest specimen of such weapons used for hunting rabbits and other smaller prey. At the same time, the discovery proves that Homo heidelbergensis used various wooden weapons for hunting.
The sites in the brown coal opencast mine from Schöningen in Lower Saxony have been known for their rich and unusually well-preserved Paleolithic finds since the early 1990s. Around ten meters below the surface, archaeologists have discovered the remains of an early human deposit with numerous, partly processed animal bones, some stone tools and several wooden weapons. The remains date from around 300,000 years ago and most likely come from Homo heidelbergensis, an early human standing between Homo erectus and the Neanderthals. The discovery of several wooden spears – the oldest hunting weapons in the world – caused a sensation in 1994.
New find in the “Spear Horizon” in Schöningen
At that time, a slightly shorter wooden stick was discovered in the same find layer, which seemed pointed at both ends. However, its purpose remained open. “Various hypotheses have been proposed for the function of this stick, including the use as a throwing stick, as a grave stick, as a bark peeler or as a children’s spear,” explain Nicholas Conard and his colleagues from the University of Tübingen. But because there were no signs of use, it was not possible to determine what this wooden stick was used for. However, the researchers have now discovered another specimen in Schöningen. This too comes from the “spear horizon”, which is around 300,000 years old, and thus from the time of Homo heidelbergensis. The stick is 64.5 centimeters long and is made of spruce wood. It is slightly pointed at both ends and has a somewhat asymmetrical shape: one side is slightly curved, the other flatter. “This makes its characteristics similar to those of the wooden artifact discovered in 1994,” the archaeologists report.
Closer investigations showed that this rod is not a naturally grown piece of wood, but that it was produced in a targeted manner. “Traces on its surface show that the early humans used stone tools to cut and process this find,” reports Conard and his colleagues. This shows 21 places where side branches have been removed and the surface of the wood has been smoothed. The crucial point, however: in contrast to the earlier wooden stick, this find shows numerous signs of wear. Among these are quirks and bumps that are spread over the entire central part of the wooden stick. On the other hand, there are no signs of wear at the ends. According to archaeologists, this speaks against the fact that it is a grave stick or a kind of club.
Oldest throwing stick in the world
“Instead, the scattered distribution of the impact tracks is consistent with the hypothesis that this tool was used as a throwing stick,” said Conard and his colleagues. Such throwing sticks are still used by primitive people in Africa, Australia and America. Experiments show that, depending on the throwing technique, such sticks can fly between five and 100 meters and reach a speed of up to 30 meters per second. “They are effective weapons and can be used to kill birds or rabbits or to drive larger animals in front of them – such as the wild horses, which were then killed and slaughtered in large numbers in Schöningen,” explains Conard’s colleague Jordi Serangeli. Similar to the Australian Native Boomerangs, throwing sticks rotate when throwing, which stabilizes their trajectory. Unlike boomerangs, however, they do not return to the launcher, but fly in a straight line to the target.
According to archaeologists, the discovery of such a throwing stick demonstrates that early humans 300,000 years ago were highly effective hunters with a broad arsenal of wooden hunting weapons. At the same time, the Schöningen throwing stick is by far the oldest known example of such a weapon worldwide. “Outside of Schöningen, no Paleolithic throwing sticks are known,” report Conard and his colleagues. The oldest throwing sticks or boomerangs to date are some 8900 to 10,000 year old finds from South Australia. “The chance of finding Paleolithic artifacts from wood is usually zero,” explains Conard. In Schöningen, however, the wooden objects were preserved because the find layer has been undisturbed and saturated with water since the time of Homo heidelbergensis and has remained almost oxygen-free.
Source: Nicholas Conard (University of Tübingen) et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution, doi: 10.1038 / s41559-020-1139-0