In a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, a team of researchers from University College London and Nordic Sport (UK) Limited examined the performance of replicas of the 300,000-year-old Schöningen hand-thrown spears to identify whether javelin throwers could use them to hit a target at distance.
Neanderthals. Image credit: University of Utah via kued.org.
“The emergence of weaponry is a critical but poorly established threshold in human evolution,” said study co-author Dr. Matt Pope, a researcher in the Institute of Archaeology at University College London.
“We have forever relied on tools and have extended our capabilities through technical innovation. Understanding when we first developed the capabilities to kill at distance is therefore a dark, but important moment in our story.”
The Schöningen spears are a set of ten wooden throwing spears from the Paleolithic Age that were excavated between 1994 and 1999 in an open-cast lignite mine in Schöningen, Germany, together with approximately 16,000 animal bones.
These spears represent the oldest completely preserved hunting weapons of prehistoric Europe so far discovered.
The study shows that the wooden spears would have enabled Neanderthals to use them as weapons and kill at distance.
It is a significant finding given that previous studies considered Neanderthals could only hunt and kill their prey at close range.
“This study is important because it adds to a growing body of evidence that Neanderthals were technologically savvy and had the ability to hunt big game through a variety of hunting strategies, not just risky close encounters,” said lead author Dr. Annemieke Milks, also from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London.
“It contributes to revised views of Neanderthals as our clever and capable cousins.”
The study was conducted with six javelin athletes who were recruited to test whether the spears could be used to hit a target at a distance.
Javelin athletes were chosen for the study because they had the skill to throw at high velocity, matching the capability of a Neanderthal hunter.
The study authors made the spear replicas by hand using metal tools. They were crafted from Norwegian spruce trees grown in Kent, UK. The surface was manipulated at the final stage with stone tools, creating a surface that accurately replicated that of a Pleistocene wooden spear.
Two replicas were used, weighing 760 and 800 g, which conform to ethnographic records of wooden spears.
The javelin athletes demonstrated that the target could be hit at up to 65 feet (20 m), and with significant impact which would translate into a kill against prey.
This is double the distance that scientists previously thought the spears could be thrown, demonstrating that Neanderthals had the technological capabilities to hunt at a distance as well as at close range.
The weight of the Schöningen spears previously led scientists to believe that they would struggle to travel at significant speed. However, the study shows that the balance of weight and the speed at which the athletes could throw them produces enough kinetic energy to hit and kill a target.
“Our study shows that distance hunting was likely within the repertoire of hunting strategies of Neanderthals, and that behavioral flexibility closely mirrors that of our own species,” Dr. Milks said.
“This is yet further evidence narrowing the gap between Neanderthals and modern humans.”
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Annemieke Milks et al. 2019. External ballistics of Pleistocene hand-thrown spears: experimental performance data and implications for human evolution. Scientific Reports 9, article number: 820; doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-37904-w
