A find in the Hohle-Fels-Höhle on the Swabian Alb sheds new light on the hunting techniques of the Neanderthals. Because archaeologists came across a 65,000-year-old flint tip that could once have been part of a thrust lance for big game hunting. This suggests that our Ice Age cousins were already adding stone blades to their wooden weapons at that time.
The karst caves of the Swabian Alb are real treasure troves of early history. This is because our ancestors sought protection in these caves a good 40,000 years ago, consumed their hunting prey and carved some of the earliest works of art in human history. The most prominent testimony to its presence is the 40,000 year old “Venus vom Hohle Fels” carved from mammoth ivory – one of the oldest depictions of people in the world. The Hohle-Fels-Höhle and five other caves in this region are now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site because of their unique finds.
Flint tip
But now a recent find shows that Homo sapiens was apparently not the first to seek refuge in these caves. During the excavations in the cave of Hohle Fels, Nicholas Conard from the University of Tübingen and his team came across an excellently preserved, leaf-shaped chert tip below the find layers with the relics of our direct ancestors. The tip of the blade is a good three inches long and has been knocked down into a blade just three inches thick. “It is the first blade tip that was excavated in the Swabian Alb using modern methods and analyzed using the most modern means,” says Conard.
From its location in sedimentary layers of the Middle Paleolithic and the dating of accompanying finds, the researchers conclude that the tip of the leaf must be more than 65,000 years old. It is significantly older than the 45,000 to 55,000 year old leaf tips found in southern Germany. Its age also suggests that this stone blade probably did not come from Homo sapiens. Instead, the Neanderthal man must have made this tip of the leaf. “After the spectacular finds of the Ice Age culture of anatomically modern humans, the Hohle Fels near Schelklingen is now also proving to be a fabulous archaeological repository for the time of the Neanderthals,” says Stefanie Kölbl, managing director of the Prehistoric Museum in Blaubeuren.
Part of a thrust lance for hunting
More detailed analyzes of the blade tip – including by a team led by Veerle Rots from the University of Liège – have provided initial indications of its possible use. They suggest that the blade was once attached to a shaft at its flat end with a plant-based adhesive. Plant fibers, animal tendons or leather straps provided additional support. Damage to the pointed end of the tip of the blade could indicate that the blade was used as the head of a thrust lance – a hunting weapon used to kill reindeer or wild horses at close range.
“That shows us that the Neanderthals knew exactly what they wanted to achieve,” says Rots. “They were technically capable of producing weapons that were supposed to serve a very specific purpose – in this case killing large game from close by.” Neanderthals of the Middle Paleolithic therefore produced more complex hunting tools composed of stone blades and wooden shafts. “This is a new step in the history of Neanderthals and shows how the Neanderthals made and used these hunting weapons,” says Conard. The tip of the leaf will now be exhibited in the Prehistory Museum Blaubeuren (urmu) as a find of the year until the beginning of January 2022.
Source: University of Tübingen; Technical article: Announcements of the Society for Prehistory 30 (2021), pp.1-28.