May
09
/ 2025
Long before modern humans arrived in Europe, early members of the human family tree were engineering wooden spears to hunt prey along the shores of an ancient lake in central Germany. Nearby animal bones suggest these weapons, discovered in Schöningen, were used to target wild horses—and not just a few horses, but whole herds of them. Originally unearthed in the 1990s, these spears were estimated to be around 400,000 years old, based on the sediment layers above and below where they were found. This initial dating suggested the toolmakers were likely Homo heidelbergensis, a species thought by many researchers to be a common ancestor of both modern humans and Neanderthals. Over the years, additional research led to younger age estimates
