Lower Palaeolithic hunting spears from Germany
Abstract
Little is known about the organic component of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic technologies, particular with respect to wooden tools. Here I describe some wooden throwing spears about 400,000 years old that were discovered in 1995 at the Pleistocene site at Schöningen, Germany. They are thought to be the oldest complete hunting weapons so far discovered to have been used by humans. Found in association with stone tools and the butchered remains of more than ten horses, the spears strongly suggest that systematic hunting, involving foresight, planning and the use of appropriate technology, was part of the behavioural repertoire of pre-modern hominids. The use of sophisticated spears as early as the Middle Pleistocene may mean that many current theories on early human behaviour and culture must be revised.
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Well-balanced fire-hardened spears considered to have been throwable are in evidence at Schöningen by at least 400,000 years ago.
“Well-balanced fire-hardened spears considered to have been throwable are in evidence at Schöningen by at least 400,000 years ago (Thieme, 1997).”
From Hypotheses for the Evolution of Reduced Reactive Aggression in the Context of Human Self-Domestication (2019) · cites this paper as Thieme, 1997
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- Authors
- Thieme, H.
- Affiliations
- Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Thieme, Hartmut
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 1997-02
- Volume
- 385
- Issue
- 6619
- Pages
- 807-810
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2064725043
- Cited by
- 834
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 65 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 37 · 2017: 32 · 2016: 36 · 2015: 44 · 2014: 28 · 2013: 31 · 2012: 31
- FWCI
- 93.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Archaeological and Geological Studies
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
- Keywords
- Lower Palaeolithic, Pleistocene, hunting weapons, Middle Pleistocene, lithic artifacts
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Archaeology, Fossils, Germany, Horses, Humans, Wood
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