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Schöninger Speere - The Spears of Schoeningen, Lower Saxony, Germany

The Schöninger spears are eight wooden javelins out of the paleolithic age, which were found together with tenthousands of animal bones between the years 1995 and 1998 in the southern part of the brown coal open mining Schoeningen. The spears are approximately 270,000 years old and are the world's oldest known wooden artifacts and the oldest completely received hunting weapons of mankind.

One of the spears and remains of a horse

Image source: Landschaftsmuseum.de

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The spears were found in combination with the remains of about 20 wild horses, whose bones contain numerous butchery marks. This makes it proof that the early humans like Homo Erectus, Homo Heidelbergensis and even Homo Neanderthalensis were active hunters. The spears, most of them are made of spruce, got distorted by the high sediment pressure. They had dimensions between 1,80 m and 2.50 m.


The head of a spear made of spruce wood

Image source: Landschaftsmuseum.de

Klick here for a larger image.


The archeological site

Image source:cdl.niedersachsen.de


Wikipedia
Landschaftsmuseum.de
Uni-heidelberg.de
Schoeningerspeere.de


Greetings Felippo